Anne-Marie Leroyer ‘Droit des Successions’ Dalloz 2009 pp29 et s.

Un héritier
The heir must have capacity to inherit and must prove their “qualité to inherit”.

Aptitude à hériter
2 conditions – must exist at time of “ouverture de la succession” and must not be “indigne”.

However, for a long time, these were not the only 2 conditions, as certain people could be hit by incapacité to inherit: • Mort civile • Des étrangers
Under the Ancien droit – étrangers or aubains were incapable of transmitting their possessions on death.
When an étranger died in France, the King exercised his “droit d’aubaine” (in virtue of which the King/seigneur received the possessions which the non-naturalised foreigner left on his death) – excluding the foreign heirs who did not live in the kingdom of their sucession rights.
Law of 31st May 1854 – repealed Mort Civile
Law of 14 July 1819 – repealed droit d’aubaine

To inherit – must exist (Art. 725) and must not be unworthy

L’absence d’indignité
The heir who has voluntarily wanted to do harm to the “defunt” can be excluded from the succession for being unworthy.
The unworthy heir is barred from the right to receive the succession.
(Unworthiness is only applicable to successions, not for failure of “avantage matrimonial”)
“L’indginté” has been interpreted in jurisprudence as being a “peine civil”/civil sanction, of a personal nature and of strict interpretation – which cannot be extended to other heirs in the indigne’s line.
(Civ. 1er, 18 déc 1984, Defrénois 1985, p.867, obs. G. Champenois;
J. Flour et H. Souleau, Les successions, A.Colin 3e éd., 1991, no. 26;
F. Terré et Y. Lequette, Droit Civil, Les Successions, op.cit., no.45, p45;
M. Grimaldi, Droit civil, Successions, op.cit., no.89)

The analysis of unworthiness as a peine privé, where the effects were independent of the will of the deceased, seems to be questioned by the Law of 3 December 2001 which allows the pardon of the unworthy (Article 728