The Monegasque Code of Private International Law, as set down by Act n°1.448 of 28 June 2017, has been in force in the Principality’s legal system since 8 July 2017.
In the absence of transitional provisions, the question of the application of the law over time led to several contradictory case law to which the Court of Revision of Monaco recently replied with a formal case law of 21 March 2022, confirming that the Code’s provisions were immediately applicable to all pending proceedings, including successions opened before it came into force.
According to this case law, any estate opened before 2017, even more than 30 years ago, and not settled by a partition deed or a final and definitive Court decision, could be challenged and reconsidered under the lens of the new Monegasque Code of Private International Law, i.e. potentially under a different law. Given the important interests at stake, the result was a real problem of predictability of judicial solutions and legal uncertainty which have a negative impact on the attractiveness of the Principality.
This solution, which runs counter to the opinion of the legal doctrine (M.Revillard, Defrénois, 2017, n°29, p.23) and criticized by law professionals (Christine Pasquier-Ciulla and Sandra Adeline, Recueil Dalloz – 30 septembre 2021 – Feu le principe de non-rétroactivité de la loi à Monaco ?), has been sanctioned by a new Law N°1.529 of 29 July 2022 containing various economic and financial provisions.
Application of the Monegasque Code of Private International Law concerning the successions opened after it’s entry into force
The article 3 of Act N°1.529 of 29 July 2022 takes a view contrary to case law of 21 March 2022 by precising that the provisions of Chapter V (Estates) of Title II of the Code of Private International Law “are applicable to the succession of persons who die on or after the entry into force of this law”.
This legal clarification, immediately applicable to be an interpretative provision, is welcomed as it increased the legal stability of the Principalty and contributes to it’s attractivity. However, we regret to have waited 5 years and, moreover, this legal precision does not extend to the entirety of the rules described in the Monegasque Code of Private international Law for which many uncertainties still remain, since the Private International Law is fundamental for Monaco given its important and very mobile foreign population.
