SOME DISPUTABLE ISSUES CONCERNING REVOCATION OF A CONTRACT ON ASSIGNMENT AND DISTRIBUTION OF PROPERTY FOR LIFE

With the introduction of the notary public into the legal system of the Republic ofSerbia, there has been a certain reaffirmation of a contract on assignment and distribution ofproperty for life, which has been increasingly concluded in recent years. At the same time,an increase in the number of revocations of this contract should be expected. The legislationof Serbia and North Macedonia prescribe specific reasons for the revocation of the contracton assignment and distribution of property for life by the assignor of the property in orderto protect his interests. Both legal systems provide for gross ingratitude of the descendantstowards the assignor of the property as a reason for unilateral termination of the contract.When the descendants under this contract undertake obligations towards the assignor, theMacedonian legislator prescribes the possibility of unilateral termination of the contractaccording to the provisions governing the unilateral termination of bilaterally bindingcontracts. On the other hand, the Serbian legislator gives different significance to the certainobligations under the contract, and prescribes the possibility of its unilateral revocation onlyin the case when the descendant did not give the settled maintenance or did not pay the debtsof the assignor. Insufficiently precise regulation of this type of termination of a valid contracton assignment and distribution of property for life raises a number of controversial issues.In this paper, the authors give a detailed analysis of the reasons for revoking this contract.They take into consideration courts’ interpretation of the legal standard of gross ingratitude,as well as under which conditions they allow the termination of the contract in the case of notprovided maintenance and non-payment of the debts

SECRET WILL IN SOME EUROPEAN LAWS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SOLUTIONS IN THE DRAFT OF THE CIVIL CODE OF NORTH MACEDONIA

When regulating the system of testamentary forms, the legislator tries to offer different forms of testaments to enable the testator to choose the most accessible form for expressing his last will. When the testator decides whether to make a will in one of the private or public forms, he then weighs whether to opt for the security of the public form of the will, which is provided by the participation of the representative of the public authority in its drafting, or for the secrecy of the content, which is provided through private form of the will. A secret (mystic, closed or sealed) will is one of the testamentary forms prescribed in the European legal area, particularly interesting considering that it is a public form of will, in which creation participates public notary, and which provides the secrecy of the contents of the testator’s last will. The paper will point out the basic characteristics of secret wills in some contemporary European legal systems and the differences in regulation between them. Special attention will be paid to the solutions in the draft of the Civil Code of North Macedonia, since the editors of the Civil Code decided to regulate secret will in Macedonian law for the first time