Directions of Updating the Inheritance Legislation of Ukraine

The paper investigates the issues of updating the inheritance legislation. The purpose of this paper is to substantiate the first steps towards the creation of a scientific concept for the reform of inheritance law. The need to improve inheritance legislation is conditioned by a number of circumstances: new developments in the doctrine of inheritance law; law enforcement practices and problems that arise in courts upon considering hereditary disputes; the need to adapt domestic legislation to that of EU countries; consideration of Ukraine's aspirations for the European community. The dominant research methods are the comparative method and the modeling method, the use of which allowed to carry out comparative law analysis of the hereditary legislation of foreign countries and Ukraine and to identify the tendencies of development of the inheritance law, to understand the methods of overcoming the arising issues. Features of testamentary capacity of minors are revealed. An opinion was expressed that the legal regulation of relations involving post-mortem children and children born with the help of reproductive technologies may go beyond hereditary. Given the historical experience, the place of inheritance law in the civil law system was determined. The conclusion on the necessity of extending the freedom of testation by introducing simplified forms of it is justified: legalization of a simple written form of thetestament, and in extraordinary circumstances – the admissibility of announcement of the testamentary disposition in oral form. The legal nature of the secret covenant was identified; the norm of the testament with condition was modelled. Supplementary ways of protecting the rights of the testator are proposed, including appeal to the court for the removal of a person entitled to a compulsory share of inheritance from succession. The provision that the grounds for reducing the size of the obligatory share of the heir should be specified in the law is substantiated. Adoption of proposals aimed at improving legislation will facilitate the implementation and protection of inheritance rights. The overall result of the study lies in the need to recodify the inheritance legislation of Ukraine with consideration of the positive experience of continental Europe.