The contributions focus on succession and obligation law norms shaping the legal status of an heir and their comparison within Polish and German law systems. They analyse the impact of the instruments of contract law on the status of an heir. The adopted methodology combining the internal-national and external-comparative perspective allows the authors to present “similarities in dissimilarities” within institutions of the German and Polish succession law. The broad analyses of legal doctrine and jurisprudence can serve as a source of knowledge and points of reference for legal practitioners, courts and legislators.

This book presents numerous instruments which create postmortal succession on the example of Polish law. Alongside the solution in inheritance law, one may apply specific inheritance (e.g. of agricultural farms) that benefits only such heirs who meet additional requirements, as well as undertake legal acts that allow to decide on heritability (or non-heritability) character of rights and duties (e.g. within the contract of mandate or company contracts). There are also numerous legislative instruments that allow for succession otherwise than by inheritance so that particular persons (and not heirs) benefit after the decedent. Such instruments include regulations of civil law but also e.g. banking law, social insurance law which are often comparable with nonprobate instruments (or willsubstitutes) under American law or German Sonderrechtsnachfolge.

The analyses focus on succession and obligation law norms shaping the legal status of an heir and their comparison within Polish and German law systems. The book analyses the impact of the instruments of contract law on the status of an heir. The adopted methodology combining the internal-national and external-comparative perspective allows the authors to present "similarities in dissimilarities" within institutions of the German and Polish succession law. The broad analyses of legal doctrine and jurisprudence can serve as a source of knowledge and points of reference for legal practitioners, courts and legislators.