European Law Institute (ELI) has approved groundbreaking Model Rules on Succession and Access to Digital Remains, a first-of-its-kind attempt to create a comprehensive legal framework for what happens to digital assets and personal digital content after death. Co-designed by Dr Edina Harbinja of the University of Birmingham, the rules aim to tackle mounting confusion across European private and public law—especially around access to social media, personal data, cryptocurrency, and other online property.
The approval responds to a problem that is becoming impossible to ignore: modern lives are deeply embedded in platforms, cloud systems, digital wallets, and AI-based representations of individuals. When someone dies, their estates may include not only files and accounts, but also creative outputs, subscription access, and “deadbots”—AI-enabled digital counterparts that can continue generating content or interacting with others.
Rather than forcing all digital material into traditional succession law or treating everything solely as data, the Model Rules propose a dual approach. Digital assets with clear economic value would pass through ordinary succession mechanisms. This aligns digital inheritance with familiar property transfer logic, supporting legal certainty for financial and commercially relevant holdings.
For personal digital remains—content closely tied to identity, privacy, and dignity—the Model Rules focus on access rather than inheritance. In practice, this means a safeguarded pathway for those with a legitimate interest to retrieve or manage specified materials while minimizing unnecessary exposure of sensitive personal information.
A key challenge is that economic and personal components often coexist in the same ecosystem. The rules therefore introduce structured processes designed to protect privacy and ensure that the deceased’s expressed wishes are respected before any transfer takes place. This is intended to reduce conflicts between heirs, privacy expectations, and platform policies.
The Model Rules also address operational realities for online service providers, including how responsibilities should be handled when accounts, data, or AI-enabled representations span borders. Cross-border digital estates are treated within the existing structure of European private international law, aiming to reduce fragmentation across jurisdictions.
Dr Harbinja emphasized that legal systems have not kept pace with platform acceleration and AI adoption. Without clear rules, individuals—particularly public figures—may be unable to meaningfully control what happens to their digital selves after death, including rights related to likeness, voice, and posthumous AI use.
If adopted into national legislation, the ELI framework could become a “future-proof” blueprint for digital inheritance, balancing autonomy, dignity, and privacy. Support from professional bodies such as STEP underscores the need for practical, coherent guidance as estate planning evolves in the digital age.
Subject of Research: Digital succession law; access to digital remains; posthumous AI representations.
Article Title: European Law Institute approves Model Rules on Succession and Access to Digital Remains.
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Keywords: digital inheritance, ELI Model Rules, digital remains, succession law, access rights, privacy, posthumous AI, deadbots, online service providers, cross-border estates
