Selected Aspects of Testaments Made by Elderly People in Chilean and Polish Law

Abstract

The subject of this study is an analysis of the Chilean and Polish legal orders in terms of ensuring the correctness (and thus the validity and effectiveness) of making a will, with particular emphasis on the legal situation of elderly people with old-age dysfunctions. This issue has an important social dimension in the face of the global ageing trend and age-related progressive senile dementia. Showing the legal solutions regarding testamentary inheritance in Chilean law, as a law based on the Roman tradition, as well as the positions of jurisprudence, has not only a cognitive value. It should be assumed that the analysis of both legal orders will allow for the formulation of conclusions regarding the applicable legal regulations in the field of inheritance law in relation to the phenomenon of ageing societies on a global scale. This article also provides a comment on the law applicable to the capacity to make a will in Chilean and Polish law. Similarity between regulations pertaining to the capacity to make a will in Chilean and Polish law does not eliminate the obligation to determine the law applicable in this regard.