The preferential attribution in the Civil and Commercial Code and the continuity of the agricultural exploitation

Abstract

The preferential attribution of the establishment to one or more heirs, has been incorporated into the Argentine Civil and Commercial Code in 2015. It recognizes its background in French civil law, and presents similarities with other institutions of Comparative Law. It offer broad protection to the family patrimony. It is an exceptional mode of hereditary partition that allows the attribution of the agricultural establishment (in the case of study) to one or more heirs. In return, the heir awardee, if applicable, must compensate the other co–heirs, in money, the greater value of the establishment over the amount of its inheritance portion. The institute has a family function, by keeping the farm at the head of one or more heirs, as well as an economic function, because it allows the economic activity to continue. It also mitigates the negative impacts of the equal division of hereditary assets, which leads to the pulverization of rural property.