Germany - The Cologne Court of Appeal (judgment 22.04.2021, 24 U 77/20) found that English succession law was incompatible with the German public order insofar as it did not provide for the rights of compulsory portion of estate, and upheld the claim of the son of a British citizen who had been resident in Germany for more than thirty years and who had chosen English law for his succession in a will and excluded his son. The Cologne Court relied on the German Constitutional Court's judgment of 19.04.2005 (1 BvR 1644/00), which had recognised the constitutional status of the right of the beneficiaries of compulsory portions in inheritance (Art. 14 para. 1 German Constitution).

Austria - We can report on a judgment of the Vienna Higher Regional Court (25.02.2021 - 2Ob 214/20i) which, on the other hand, ruled out a violation of the Austrian ordre public in the application of the English law of succession and the absence of compulsory inheritance rights, but in a case where the connections of the concrete case with Austria were very slight. The Court pointed out that in the Austrian Constitution there is no explicit reference to inheritance rights

France - France has enacted a special law to protect the rights of legitimated persons in the case of successions with international elements (Law No 2021-1109 of 24.08.2021), which amends articles 913 and 921 of the Civil Code in order to allow children excluded from the succession, where the applicable foreign law does not provide for a legitimated right, to satisfy their compulsory portions in inheritance under French law in respect of succession property located in France. This rule presupposes that the children or the testator had the nationality of an EU country, or residence in an EU country.