One of the greatest problems that the creators of the new legal order in Europe are facing are the differences that are present between the Anglo- American Common Law legal system that has been developed in England and the European Continental Law system. These differences, on one hand, concern the concept itself and on the other hand specific normative solutions. Therefore, it is very important to compare the legislations that exists within certain legal systems in relation to the effect of kinship, marriage and cohabitation in formulating the rules of intestacy and forced heirship. This article being a subject of longterm legal research, firstly tackles the matter of the legal position of a spouse, unmarried partner or relatives as heirs of the deceased in the Law of England, i.e. specific effect that marriage, kinship and cohabitation as legal facts have on creation of intestacy and forced heirship rights in the legislation. A matter of further analysis will be the legal regulation of the above mentioned issue in the laws of the Continental legal system. Finally, there is a synthesis providing a comparison of analysed legal systems, implying the present differences, but also certain merging tendencies that exist between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]