Deutsche Erbengemeinschaft und italienische comunione ereditaria

If a deceased person has multiple heirs, the law has to answer a number of important questions: Who may administer, take possession of and use the deceased's assets and to what extent? Who is liable for the debts left by the deceased and to what extent, and to whom must the deceased's creditors turn? As substantive inheritance law has so far been spared fundamental standardization, European countries answer these questions differently. The German community of heirs was essentially developed from that of Prussian land law. Today, it presents itself as a community of joint heirs in which the co-heirs are generally treated as a collective until the estate is divided. Although the Italian Codice civile of the 19th century goes back to the Code Napoléon, it was also significantly influenced by Austrian law and was reissued in 1942. Today, the comunione ereditaria presents itself as a hybrid form, in which the legal power of the individual heir still extends further than in Austria, but his responsibility for the liabilities of the estate has also increased. On the one hand, this work examines the question as to which historical assessments have given the community of heirs of the German Civil Code and that of the Italian Civil Code their current forms and, on the other hand, sheds light on the currently applicable German and Italian law.