“This is not about politics,” Judge Rehnquist stated from the bench. “It is about determining what set of laws—Delaware’s, the defunct USSR’s, or modern Belarus’s—governs the distribution of a deceased person’s property. We are in uncharted waters.”
“The Soviet legal principle of ‘socialist inheritance’ prioritizes the collective,” the Belarusian filing reads. “Mrs. Volkov-Morrison never formally renounced her original nationality during the dissolution window of 1991-1994.” first soviet citizen will probated in the united states
Judge Marcus C. Rehnquist, presiding over the Chancery Court’s probate docket, has ordered a "dual-tracking" approach. A forensic genealogist will attempt to establish Mrs. Volkov-Morrison’s legal nationality at the time of the USSR’s dissolution, while a separate master will review the validity of the 2021 Will under Delaware’s Uniform Probate Code. “This is not about politics,” Judge Rehnquist stated