Donations between spouses in Private International Law

Abstract

This paper looks at how donations between spouses with at least one international ele­ment are treated from a private international law perspective. The characterisation of these donations is complex and often contested. This is mainly due to its hybrid nature, which can be covered by contract law, family law and at times inheritance law. The paper highlights the need to develop: a) autonomous concepts included in the European legal instruments meant to be applicable to the case, particularly that of “marital economic regime”; and b) regulation’s scopes and the interaction between them in order to clarify the question and to ensure uniformity and legal certainty in the European area of justice.