The Luxembourgian newspaper Wort wrote on 22 June 2012 that the Nassau Family pact of 1783 has been revised, and that the procedure that started last year, cf. the Court's announcement of 20 June 2011 and the Grand Ducal decree of 16 September 2010 introducing equality between males and females with respect to the succession to the throne, has been finalised.
In addition to the family pact revision dated 11 June 2012, the house law of 5 July 1907 (*) has also been changed (dated 18 June 2012). The decrees were published in Memorial. Journal officiel du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg B No. 51, on 23 June 2012.
The Wort article interestingly enough ends by saying that "The revision will not affect the current order of succession", which I interpret as referring to the 2012 revision and not the changes made in 2010, which said that the new rules would first be applied to the issue of Grand Duke Henri, cf. the family pact article 24 second paragraph, meaning that Grand Duke Henri's daughter Princess Alexandra was included in the line of succession to the Grand Ducal throne.
See also my previous blog articles of 21 and 23 June 2011 concerning the Luxembourgian succession law.
I will add the decrees of 11 and 18 June 2012 to my Luxembourg page soon - hopefully I will get the time to do it before I start my vacation in July.
(*) Memorial B of 23 June 2012 p. 829 gives the date 5 May 1907, something I find strange, as the issue of Memorial publishing the said family law, no. 37, 1907, clearly gives the date 5 July 1907.
I wonder if the Grand Ducal Court is intentionally trying to be as unclear as possible, or whether it is just incompetence. Thanks for trying to clarify their confusing announcements, Dag!
ReplyDeleteThe Wort article seems to be somewhat misleading, as the part of the family pact dealing with the succession law that was changed in in 2010 (but published in 2011), was not revised this time. The press statement from the court, dated 22 June 2012, says:
ReplyDelete"Dans le contexte de la publication le 23 juin 2011 du décret grand-ducal introduisant l'égalité entre hommes et femmes en matière de succession au trône le Grand-Duc, en sa qualité de Chef de Famille, avait évoqué la procédure de réforme du Pacte de famille en cours. En ligne avec cette déclaration et dans un but de transparence il sera procédé à la publication au Mémorial des décrets grand-ducaux des 11 et 18 juin 2012 portant coordination respectivement du Pacte de famille du 30 juin 1783 et du Statut de famille du 5 mai 1907. Si les deux instruments traduisent une volonté de modernisation certaine ils restent imprégnés de leur filiation historique. A signaler enfin que ni le Pacte ni le Statut ne préjugent du sort de la révision constitutionnelle en projet alors qu'ils comportent tous les deux une clause de réserve explicite précisant que «(leurs) dispositions sont subordonnées aux règles prévues par la Constitution du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg»."
DTH