The Slayer rule, in the common law of inheritance, is a doctrine that prohibits inheritance by a person who murders someone from whom he or she stands to inherit. In calculating inheritance of the decedent’s estate, the effect of the slayer rule would be treated as though he or she had predeceased the person who had been murdered, therefore his or her share of the estate would pass to his or her issue.
This rule or similar rule applies in most countries as it is believed that the criminal cannot benefit from crimes.
Like most countries, a resemble law is written in the statutory Inheritance Law of People’s Republic of China (“PRC” or “China”), among the scenarios that the successor loses inheritance right. It reads that “any successor who acts in any of the following ways shall lose his inheritance rights: 1. Intentionally killing the decedent; …3. Abandoning or maltreating the decedent in serious circumstances;…”
To convict someone a crime of murder in determining whether he/she lost the right to inherit the decedent’s estate, under China’s justice system, the civil court will not rule on its own but waiting for the criminal ruling. This is unlike the US where a wrongful killing can be proved by predominance evidence in civil law, which the Slayer rule applies to, though a crime of murder cannot be convicted due to the requirement on proof of beyond reasonable doubt.
But in the judicial explanation of the Supreme Court of PRC for another situation the inheritance right is deprived of, i.e. “abandoning or maltreating the decedent in serious circumstances”, it was made clear that the inheritance right will be gone whether the abandoning or maltreating is to be pursued criminal liability as long as the civil court decides it is serious enough. In contrast, this judicial explanation merely clarified that whether the murder is accomplished or not, the inheritance right will cease.
Another concerned party whose interests might be affected is the successors of the slayer. When the slayer rule in the common law applies the slayer’s share of the estate would pass to his or her issue. But in mainland China, the successors of the slayer cannot inherit in subrogation while they could if the slayer died ahead of the decedent. Nevertheless, it does not prevent them from inheriting as a second priority successor.