Regulation (EU) no. 650/2012 on succession consists of comprehensive rules for hereditary relations with cross - border element. It replaces all other autonomous national conflict-of-law rules which are currently effective in the European Union member states. The aim of the Regulation is to, above all, strengthen the legal certainty in a way which enables the testator to organize his own inheritance beforehand and to secure the principle of unity of succession. This thesis analyses and explains the provisions of the Regulation (EU) no. 650/2012 regarding applicable law. Special accent is on the explication of the connecting factor regarding habitual residence and closer connection, as well as party autonomy. Furthermore, this thesis also accentuates the specific conflict-of-law rules and gives an overview of some general institutes such as renvoi and public policy (ordre public). In addition to that, this thesis works towards finding solutions to specific situations that can occur during determination of applicable law, such as statelessness, polypatridy, commorientes, states with more than one legal system etc.