The Animals as Unconventional Bequests

Hungarian Regulatory Dilemmas in Light of International Models

Abstract

This study examines the specific private law position of animals in the field of inheritance law. Although the Civil Code generally stipulates that the rules applicable to things apply to animals, they require different treatment from inanimate objects during inheritance law succession. Based on this, the issues of the duty of care, the burden of inheritance and proper maintenance are analyzed. It can be said that the inheritance law of the legal status of animals is one of the most dynamically developing areas of private law. The change in the culture of keeping animals and the transformation of companion animals into “family members” creates a tension that needs to be resolved with the inheritance system based on classical property law. The topicality of this paper is that while civil law regulations continue to view animals as things, criminal law and animal protection norms already treat them as sentient beings, which can lead to serious anomalies in the application of law in the transitional period after the death of the testator.