ABSTRACT
One of the most striking features of modern civil law systems is the institution of the family communion, that is a patrimony containing property owned jointly by a husband and wife which is separate from the patrimonies which they own severally as individual persons. The basic problem to which the family communion provides an answer is how does one analyse in law the ownership of property which is devoted to the purposes of, or is shared by, a married couple and possibly their children. The development of the law of intestate succession has much to say about the changing notion of what constitutes the family and the closeness of relationships within it. Before leaving the law of the family, it is worth mentioning the alimentary obligation, which is an important feature of modem civilian systems of family law and which constitutes in effect the reverse side of the coin from forced inheritance.
