Who inherits without a will in Equatorial Guinea?

In the Spanish civil-code tradition the children inherit first in equal shares, and the surviving spouse takes a share or a right to use part of the estate.

A spouse with no children usually shares the estate with the parents and ascendants, and takes the whole estate if there are none.

Children first, then the parents and other ascendants, then the siblings, then more distant relatives, and finally the state.

An unmarried partner generally has no automatic right to inherit.

Part of the estate is reserved for the children and, in some cases, the parents and the spouse, so a will cannot leave them nothing.

The law of the place where land lies usually governs the land, and the law of the person's last home usually governs the rest. An estate with a foreign element needs advice in the country.

• In many communities customary rules decide who inherits family land and the family home, and courts and reforms have been moving toward equal rights for sons and daughters and for widows. Which law applies often depends on the form of the marriage and on whether the person lived under customary law.

Equatorial Guinea belongs to the Civil law family. Succession law grows out of the legal tradition, so it helps to know how the system works.

Read the Equatorial Guinea legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in Equatorial Guinea? →

• JuriGlobe, University of Ottawa: world legal systems
• World Bank: Women, Business and the Law (country data on inheritance rights)