In the United Kingdom, inheritance law is determined partly by statute law and partly by case law.
The statutory law of succession only applies if the testator has not made an effective will. In English inheritance law, intestate succession is governed by the Administration of Estates Act of the Intestates Act 1952.
It is essential to emphasise that the basic structure of English inheritance law is very different from that of German law. Under English law, upon the death of a person, the estate does not pass directly to the legal or testamentary heirs by way of universal succession, but first to the „personal representative“, who, like an executor, settles the liabilities of the estate and distributes the remaining estate to the respective heirs in accordance with the rules of intestate or voluntary succession.