SUCCESSION (

See also:

• LAT

Lat. successio, from succedere, to follow after)  the act of succeeding or following, as of events, objects, places in a series, &c., but particularly, in law, the transmission or passing of rights from one to another . In every system of law provision has to be made for a readjustment of things or goods on the death of the human beings who owned and enjoyed them . Succession to rights may be considered from two points of view: in some ways they depend on the personality of those who are concerned with them: if you hire a servant, you acquire a claim against a certain person and your claim will disappear on his death . But personal relations are commonly, implicated in the arrangement of property: if a person borrows money, the creditor expects to be paid even should the debtor die, and the actual payment will depend to a great extent on the rules as to inheritance . Succession, in the sense of the partition or redistribution of the property of a former owner is, in modern systems of law, the subject of many rules . Such rules may be based on the will of a de-ceased person . They will be found in such articles as ADMINIS- TRATION; ASSETS; EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS; INHERITANCE; INTESTACY; LEGACY; WILL; &C . There are cases, however, in which a will cannot be expressed; this eventuality is discussed in the present article, and there-can be no doubt that it is the most characteristic one from the point of view of social conditions . It represents the view of society at large as to what ought to be the normal course of succession in the readjustment of property after the death of a citizen . We shall dwell chiefly on the customs of succession among the nations of Aryan stock .