Federal Act
on Private International Law
(PILA)

¹ The sub­stant­ive valid­ity, bind­ing ef­fects and in­ter­pret­a­tion of a con­tract of suc­ces­sion, to­geth­er with the ef­fects of the pro­vi­sions that it con­tains, are gov­erned by the law of the state of the test­at­or’s dom­i­cile at the time the con­tract is con­cluded.

² If the test­at­or sub­mit­ted their en­tire es­tate to the law of any one of the states of which they are a cit­izen in the con­tract of suc­ces­sion or an earli­er dis­pos­i­tion (Art. 91 para. 1), that law ap­plies in lieu of the law of the law des­ig­nated in para­graph 1.

³ In the case of con­tracts of suc­ces­sion with two or more test­at­ors, the dis­pos­i­tion of each test­at­or is sub­ject to the law ap­plic­able to it un­der para­graph 1 or 2. Con­tracts of suc­ces­sion also in­clude wills that are based on a joint agree­ment between the test­at­ors with bind­ing ef­fect.

⁴ The con­tract­ing parties may sub­mit the con­tract of suc­ces­sion to the law of any one of the states of which the test­at­or or any one of the test­at­ors are a cit­izen or to the law at the dom­i­cile of any one of the test­at­ors at the time the con­tract is con­cluded. The test­at­or con­cerned must have the rel­ev­ant cit­izen­ship either at the time the con­tract is con­cluded or at the time of death of the first test­at­or to die.