Feasibility Study Of The Succession Contract

The succession contract is one of the succession methods in Germany,and it was constructed thoroughly in Germany and Switzerland.The ancestors could sign succession contracts which contain agreed maintenance obligations with the heritors.The heritors carry out the obligations in return of a portion of the ancestors’ fortune.In China,there are some cases like this.Old parents sign deals with their kids,making support arrangements and promising a part of their fortune to a specific child.In some rural area in China,the elderly often intend to make appointment with one specific child which would take care of the old in their elderly life,and leave all their fortune,houses and belongings to that person.In juridical practice,this kind of deals were considered invalid sometimes,otherwise it might be considered as legacy maintenance agreements or allograph testaments.What bothers us is this kind of succession contract could not fit in any kind of Chinese legal succession methods,but the fact does exist for quite a long time and it urgently needs legal protection.The author tried to analyze through a particular case,and finally came out with a solution after going through the conflicts between the current law and the actual need.In order to elaborate the question,this paper starts with three levels of discussion,including the academic,the social and the juridical practice level.It discusses its feasibility of implementation based on the historical succession habits and the particularity of Chinese political and economic system.Above all it reveals the blueprint of building succession contract system in China,and give out some immature suggestions from the author.