PISMENO ZAVEŠTANjE PRED SVEDOCIMA U SRPSKOM PRAVU I PRAVIMA DRŽAVA EVROPSKE UNIJE

Abstract

The European legal area has witnessed the tendecy of a gradual abandoning of the written will made before witnesses as a form of a private and regular type of the testament for expressing the testator's last will. Yet, while individual European countries are dropping them out of their legislations, the other countries not only keep them, but they rather remain the dominant form of testament. This is also the case in Serbian law. Bearing in mind these facts, the author has decided to focus her attention to analyzing the formal legal requirements that make a written will made before witnesses valid and whether this form of will fulfills its protective and evidentiary role. The author is focused on analyzing the current regulations that treat this matter in Serbian law, as well as the laws of EU member states (Austria, Hungary, Czeck Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia). Having detected the advantages and disadvantages of the contemporary regulations on this matter in the EU countries, the author concludes that, as for Serbian law, the survival of this form of will should not be questioned. However, the author believes that there is always room for improvement and in the final part of the work suggests the path to pursue in that direction.