Legal biography of a fideikomis

This monograph is a detailed exploration of the legal life of the family fideicommissum of the nobility, using the single entail of the Schlik family in the Kopidlno and Staré Hrady estates as a case study. Over a period of more than 300 years, it seeks to present the transformations of an institution that, by the will of the testator, was planned to be unchangeable and to last for all time, yet which changed from the outset and eventually ceased to exist. The main points of interest are key moments such as the foundation of the institution, the transfers of tenure to new successors, often associated with legal disputes, and, last but not least, its remarkable demise and very brief – but all the more remarkable – "near-resurrection" in 1926, two years after the abolition of fideicommissa in Czechoslovakia. It is precisely the intended perpetuity of fideicommissa that means claims arising from these extinct or abolished institutions may from time to time appear even in contemporary court proceedings, which is, after all, the case with the Schlik family fideicommissum. A more in-depth study of the corpus of other noble fideicommissa is therefore desirable not only from the perspective of legal history, but would also find its application in current law. This case study offers a way to approach this topic, which is always individual for each fideicommissum, during its analysis.