Enforcement with a foreign element in Serbia - jurisdiction of the courts | Blog

Enforcement with a foreign element in Serbia - jurisdiction of the courts

END Introduction In a judicial inheritance proceeding, the court determines who the heirs of the deceased are, what property his inheritance consists of, and what rights from the inheritance belong to the heirs, legatees, and others. If there is a foreign element on the side of the deceased, it is necessary to determine which substantive law will apply and which court will have jurisdiction. The foreign element on the side of the deceased will be the existence of foreign citizenship of the deceased or of a Serbian citizen with immovable or movable property outside Serbia at the time of death. Inheritance proceedings in Serbia are governed by the provisions of the Law on Inheritance and the provisions of the Law on Procedure on''consideration of dissenting issues. As for the jurisdiction of Serbian courts in inheritance cases with a foreign element, the rules are also defined in the Law on Resolution of Conflict of Laws, taking into account the regulation of other countries. Here we will tell a little more about the jurisdiction of Serbian courts in inheritance cases with a foreign element.

II Institution of process

Inheritance cases are opened at the discretion of the court, as soon as the court learns of the death or declaration of a person as deceased. Having said that, if the deceased was a Serbian citizen, inheritance cases should be opened at the discretion of the court as soon as the competent court is informed by the registrar of the death of the person. The registrar often misses to notify the court of''death. In this case, the heirs of the deceased should file a petition for inheritance proceedings with the competent court. It is then up to the court whether the cases will be continued and finalized before the court or before a notary. Usually, the court will schedule the cases before a notary public unless there is a clear and justified request by the heirs for the cases to be conducted before the court. However, filing a petition with the court is always necessary if the deceased was a foreign citizen or stateless person. Inheritance cases before Serbian courts are conducted in the Serbian language, so the petition must be in Serbian. In addition, if the deceased was a foreign citizen, the court is obliged to conduct the process on its own and is not entitled to assign the case''notary.

III Jurisdiction of Serbian courts

The basic courts are courts of first instance competent to participate in inheritance cases in Serbia.

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There are a total of 67 main courts in Serbia. Basically, each main court has only one inheritance judge and very few employees. This is due to the fact that courts usually appoint notaries to conduct ordinary inheritance cases (inheritance cases without a foreign element), and cases with a foreign element are sporadic. The general rule for inheritance cases is that the court in whose territory the testator had permanent or temporary residence at the time of death will have territorial jurisdiction. If at the time of death the testator did not have'If the testator has a permanent or temporary place of residence in the territory of the Republic of Serbia, the court where the predominant part of his/her property is located shall be the court of competent jurisdiction. Based on the above, territorial jurisdiction is established first of all on the basis of the fact of permanent/temporary residence of the testator in Serbia, and then on the basis of the location of the predominant part of his/her property. If it is impossible to determine the location of the prevailing part of the testator's inherited property, any court in whose territory the part of the property is located may be the court of competent jurisdiction. If there is no other way to determine which court will be the competent court based on the territorial principle, the Supreme Court of Serbia''authorized to determine which main court will be competent. The Court of the Republic of Serbia has exclusive jurisdiction to hear cases concerning immovable property located in the territory of the Republic of Serbia. If a court of some other country hears a case and determines the heirs regarding the immovable property of a deceased person in Serbia, the decision of the foreign court will not be recognized in Serbia and the Serbian authorities will not recognize it. If the immovable property of Serbian citizens is located abroad (in a foreign country), the court of the Republic of Serbia will have jurisdiction only if the authorities of the country where the immovable property is located do not have jurisdiction under the law of that country. The Court of the Republic of Serbia shall have jurisdiction to hear cases,'''concerning movable property of Serbian citizens, if the movable property is located in the territory of Serbia or the foreign authority does not have jurisdiction under the law of the country where the property is located or has declined jurisdiction. Also, the court of the Republic of Serbia will have jurisdiction to hear cases concerning the movable property of a foreign citizen located in the territory of the Republic of Serbia, if the court in the country of the deceased does not have jurisdiction to hear cases concerning the movable property of Serbian citizens. The court of the Republic of Serbia shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear cases on the movable property of stateless persons, persons whose nationality cannot be ascertained or persons who have been granted refugee status, if the movable property