Maurice Jarre left his estate to his widow through a California trust, and France's highest court said his children's reserved share did not follow him abroad

Maurice Jarre, a French composer, lived in California for more than 30 years and died in Los Angeles on 29 March 2009. He married Fong Khong on 6 December 1984. In 1991 they set up a family trust, with themselves as its only settlors and trustees. In 1995 they put a Paris property bought in 1981 into a French property company. His will of 31 July 2008 left his movable property to his wife and the rest to the trustee. His three children from earlier marriages, including the musician Jean-Michel Jarre, received nothing. Under French law children are entitled to a reserved share of a parent's estate. The children sued in France. The Paris Court of Appeal rejected them on 11 May 2016. On 27 September 2017 the Cour de cassation held that a foreign law without a reserved share is not, in itself, contrary to French international public policy. It could be set aside only if applying it left a child in economic hardship or need, and no one had claimed that. On 15 February 2024 the European Court of Human Rights rejected Jean-Michel and Stéfanie Jarre's complaint. A French law of 24 August 2021 now lets disinherited children claim a compensatory levy against property in France in some cases. In June 2026 France told the European Commission the levy does not apply where the foreign law gives children some protection.