Renouncement

Jordan’s Personal Status Code was amended in 2010 with an instruction to provide a three-month period of reflection after the division of property rights. After this period, if a woman wants to renounce her inheritance, a court must explain to her the consequences and in the case of immovable property, it must be registered first in the name of the heirs.

In Italy, the succession rules under the Italian Civil Code require a successor to give public notice of a refusal in front of a Notary Public or a public officer. The act of renouncing cannot be made in a private document.

The Law on Inheritance in Kosovo (Law No.2004/26) and the Law on Gender Equity in Kosovo (No. 05/L-020) protect a women’s right to inheritance. Article 30 of the Inheritance law states that ““[t]he heir may renounce the inheritance by a statement made to the court, until the inheritance proceedings are completed.” The previous Law on Gender Equality in Kosovo (Law No. 2004/2) provided an additional safeguard by permitting the renunciation of inheritance only “after the registration of their inherited property” (emphasis added); thus, the law required that a person first acquire the property before he/she could renounce it. This provision was ignored in practice, however, and renunciation typically occurred before registration.

The recently amended Law on Gender Equality in Kosovo (No. 05/L-020) contains no such provisions addressing renunciation of inheritance rights, constituting a step backwards as concerns the protection of women’s property rights.