The public policy exception as grounds for refusing to recognize or enforce foreign authentic instruments in succession cases

Abstract It appears that the era in which domestic courts relied solely on the knowledge and application of the national legal order in their adjudicative practice is irretrievably gone. Factual circumstances encountered in judicial practice increasingly involve legal events with cross-border elements. Consequently, public authorities have to become acquainted with and, in many situations, apply foreign legal solutions in the relevant field, particularly in matters of succession law. The principle of recognition and enforcement of foreign authentic instruments in civil matters was introduced, including in the European Union, to facilitate this complex and often time-consuming task. The applicability of this principle was subject to a single condition, namely the absence of any conflict between the recognition of a foreign instrument’s legal effects or its enforceability and the legal order of the State in which acceptance or enforcement is sought.