Austria

This chapter focuses on the local system of Austria—a civil law country. It describes the federal law of Austria, The Austrian General Civil Code (Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (ABGB)), which provides for uniform inheritance provisions throughout the entire Republic of nine provinces. This chapter also details the different forms of will in Austria: holograph, allograph, a will drawn in another’s handwriting, or typed, etc., but not prepared as a public document, An Oral or Unwritten Will, and A Deed of Inheritance. It then jumps to elucidate the statutory intestate succession under ABGB. It argues that the deceased’s blood relatives are entitled to inherit in the following bloodlines (stirpes): the first line: any children, whether legitimate or illegitimate, second line: parents and their issue, third line: grandparents and their issue, and fourth line: great-grandparents, but not their issue. Ultimately, the chapter turns to Austria's freedom of testation. It also looks at the Austrian inheritance laws and joint property.