Wiktionary
n. A formula or algorithm that determines who inherits an office upon the death, resignation, or removal of its current occupant.
Wikipedia
An order of succession is the sequence of those entitled to hold a high office such as head of state or an honour such as a title of nobility in the order in which they stand in line to it when it becomes vacated. This sequence may be regulated through descent or by statute.
An established order of succession is the normal way of passing on hereditary positions, and also provides immediate continuity after an unexpected vacancy in cases where office-holders are chosen by election: the office does not have to remain vacant until a successor is elected. In some cases the successor takes up the full role of the previous office-holder, as in the case of the presidency of many countries; in other non-hereditary cases there is not a full succession, but a caretaker chosen by succession criteria assumes some or all of the responsibilities, but not the formal office, of the position. For example, when the position of Catholic Pope becomes vacant, the College of Cardinals collectively carries out the essential functions of the papacy until a successor is elected.
Usage examples of "order of succession".
But they assign the last and most humble place to the husband of Fatima, in the persuasion that the order of succession was determined by the decrees of sanctity.
The order of succession which gives the crown to the children of the sister, the number of whom is not larger than those of a prince who has only one wife, must prevent these inconveniences.
But on reflection he will understand that you were acting out of self-preservation, and also out of a higher loyalty to the Empire and himself, to assure the proper order of succession.
The order of succession in which his finger moved over the lines of the design appeared simple but certainly not obvious.
It would have been better if he'd been born here on Grayson, of course, but the bloodline and order of succession would have been clear and unambiguous.
Nor had he changed from the leader who let his personnel proclaim him Emperor--himself reluctantly, less from vainglory than a sense of workmanship, when the legitimate order of succession had dissolved in chaos and every rival claimant was a potential disaster.
But if we went to sea one at a time in strict order of succession to the property, he thought it might show whether any connected fate followed the family as a family.
Number One, Vic Freibart, currently off on a ceremonial tour with the Vice President and temporarily removed from the order of succession.