Prélèvement: origem, evolução e ocaso do privilégio nas sucessões internacionais na França

Abstract

This paper deals to the evolution of the prélèvement, a legal mechanism to protect national heirs, for many years in force in the French Civil Code. With some similarity to the benefit of the more favorable law provided by the Brazilian legislation, the prélèvement allowed the French heirs who had been excluded in successions abroad, to compensate that loss by taking an equivalent portion on the assets located in the French territory. For this purpose, this paper uses the historical method and analyzes the context in which the prélèvement rule has emerged, how it was interpreted by the doctrine and the case law of the French Courts. Finally, it discusses the reasons to be declared unconstitutional by the French Constitutional Council in 2011. The analysis discloses a distortion of the original idea of patrimonial protection to certain heirs, turned into a privilege based on their nationalities, contrary to the principle of equality.