Preliminary Programme

In an attempt to secure equality between all citizens, the Civil Code of 1804 in France imposed equal partible inheritance between all heirs, male or female. The new law completely contradicted the traditional unegalitarian inheritance laws which had been implemented everywhere in the Pyrenees since the Middle Ages, customs which imposed single inheritance or the transmission of all family assets (house and land) to one child and the exclusion of the other children. The customs however were so rooted into the culture that families refused to accept the new law because it threatened the viability of the family property and house as a result of successive partitions in the nineteenth century. The new law inevitably generated new economic uncertainties and new family conflicts as a result of partition. In order to limit these uncertainties and conflicts, Pyrenean families elaborated new strategies to get around the Civil Code to perpetuate aspects of the ancient single inheritance practices, disadvantaging the excluded children and the younger women of the family in particular. How did families manage to get around the law in the nineteenth century and why were younger women disadvantaged by the new inheritance practices ? (Show less)

The evolution of family laws in Transylvania during the period 1850-1900, reflects both control of the church, wich was in authority in matters of marriage and divorce, and of the state institutions, wich takes control in the end of the XIX-th century over the private life of the individuals.
The state (the Austrian and the Hungarian one) was directly involved in the family dynamics and the series of laws passed between 1894–1895 accentuated and stimulated the state jurisdiction over the marital status.
This research is meant present, describe and analyze how the Napoleonic Code influenced the Romanian legislation from Transylvania. Particular attention is paid to reconstitute the matrimonial behaviour of the population and the way in wich the individuals related to the intrusion of laymanship and modernity.
The paper is based on published sources such as the Austrian Civil Code, the Romanian press and specialized texts (circular letters, brochures, etc.). (Show less)

This paper analyzes the strategies of household succession and inheritance practices of the slaveholder elite in the parish of Guarapiranga (Minas Gerais, Brazil), between 1780 and 1880. In the Eighteenth Century, the parish of Guarapiranga was one of the frontier sites of the Gold Mining District of Minas Gerais. At the beginning of the Nineteenth Century the economic axis gradually changed to agricultural and proto-industrial activities linked to regional markets. Using a collected sample of nearly 400 post-mortem estate inventories and population nominative rolls, we try to identify the mechanisms of reproduction and accumulation of property and wealth, as well the changes in slave and landholding patterns. Network analysis tools were applied to reconstruct kinship networks through time. Our analytic focus was on the tensions and ambiguities created by distinct patterns of succession and inheritance in the slaveholders practices of property devolution. Portuguese (and latter Brazilian) inheritance law recognized equal rights of husband and wife to property, and equal succession rights for all legitimate and illegitimate heirs, regardless of sex, age or order of birth. We argue that succession by will, endogenous matrimonial alliances and dowries play a central role in evading the egalitarian framework of law and allowing to regroup family property (Show less)

In Japan, preparation of the Civil Code was started for the purpose of being recognized as a modern state from West European countries about 140 years ago. The French scholar took the lead and the Civil Code which imitated France Civil Code was made. Since the "Ye system" existed, the function which this Civil Code has did not fully work on Meiji Period.
The "Ye system" was abolished after World War II. And the true meaning of the Civil Code became clear.
However, it is not yet rare for one of children to inherit entire fortune unlike regulation of the Civil Code in Japan. These days, the opinion that it is unequal that the child who looked after his parents cannot inherit entire fortune is often heard.
This report informs the present condition of Japan. I want to discuss the conflict with the Civil Code and custom, and families' strategy. (Show less)