LIMITATIONS OF THE WILL OF THE TESTATOR IN THE CASE OF RIGHTS HELD IN HISTORIC COMMUNITIES OF PROPERTY OWNERS IN ROMANIA

Abstract

Since 2008, Romania's historical treasury also includes historical property owner communities, which regained legal status under art. 26-28 of Law no. 1/2000. These communities, such as freeholder communities, compossessorates and frontier forests each had different specific organizational and functional rules prior to the abusive takeover of their lands by the communist regime. Through the 1910 Forestry Code, a normative act that regulated until 1948 the functioning of these associative forms, "local practices" were validated, and rules that diverged from the civil code and procedure were established. Even today, general rules governing the freedom of will of the owner of property are not entirely applicable to jointly managed properties by these communities. Thus, with the exception of some transactions between people who are already members of the associative form, legal inheritance is the only way by which co-ownership rights can be acquired within these special legal entities. The possible testamentary transmission of these rights is also limited to the circle of legal heirs.