Regulation 2012/650 does not only deal with private international law issues. In order to achieve the objectives laid down in its recitals 7 and 67 and especially to ensure that a cross-border succession may “be settled speedily, smoothly and efficiently”, despite national differences, the Succession Regulation also provides for the creation of an European Certificate of Succession (recital 8 and Articles 62 et seq.), a legal instrument that aims at enabling “heirs, legatees, executors of the will or administrators of the estate (...) to demonstrate easily their status and/or rights and powers in another Member State”. The paper explains the Succession Regulation's rules concerning the ECS, focusing on some controversial issues.
