Civil Code of the Italian Republic (1945) (excerpts related to gender equality) (English)
[unofficial translation]
[excerpts]
Civil Code
PART I
Promise of marriage
Art. 79 Effects
The promise of marriage does not require to contract it nor to execute what was agreed in the case of non-implementation.
Art. 80 Restitution of gifts
The fiancée/fiancé can ask the restitution of gifts given because of the promise of marriage, if this has not been contracted (785, 2694).
The demand is no longer possible after a year as from the day on which the refusal to cele/pate the marriage took place or from the day of the death of one of the fiancés.
Art. 81 Compensation of damages
The promise of marriage made by each party to the other one by means of a public action or private document by an adult or by a minor permitted to contract marriage on the basis of the regulation of art. 84, or resulting from the demand for the publication, obliges the promising person, who without justification refuses to compensate the damage caused to the other party for the expenses incurred and for the obligations contracted because of that promise.
The damage shall be compensated within the limit in which expenses and obligations correspond to the welfare of the parties (2056).
The same compensation must be borne by the promising person who through his own fault has given a reason of refusal to the other.
The demand is no longer possible after a year as from the day of the refusal to cele/pate the marriage (2964 and following).
SECTION I
Conditions necessary to contract the marriage
Art. 84 Age
The minors cannot contract marriage.
The court, on request from the interested person, being satisfied of its psycho-physical maturity and of the legitimacy of the presented reasons, after having heard from the prosecuting attorney, the parents or the tutor, can by decree submitted in Chamber of the Council, accept for serious reasons the marriage of someone who is sixteen years and over.
The decree is communicated to the prosecuting attorney, to the spouses, to the parents and the tutor.
Against the decree a claim can be put forward, with an appeal to the Court of Appeals, within the fixed term of ten days as from the communication.
The Court of Appeals decides by means of non-challengeable decree, submitted in the Council Chamber.
The decree is effective as of when the term previewed in the fourth paragraph is passed, if a claim has not been put forward.
Art. 86 Freedom of state
Cannot contract marriage a person who is already contracted in a previous marriage (65, 116, 117, 124, c.p. 556).
Art. 87 Relationship, affinity, adoption and affiliation
Cannot contract marriage between themselves are the following persons:
l) ancestors and descendants in direct line, legitimate or illegitimate;
2) first cousins, by blood or uterins;
3) an uncle and a niece, an aunt and a nephew;
4) relatives by marriage in direct line; it is also prohibited in the case in which the relation derives from a marriage declared annulled or dissolved or for which the cessation of all the effects has been pronounced;
5) relatives by marriage in collateral line in the second degree;
6) an adoptive parent, an adopted person and its descendants;
7) adopted children of the same person;
8) adopted persons and the children of the adoptive parent;
9) adopted persons and the spouse of the adoptive parent, an adoptive parent and the spouse of the adopted one.
The prohibitions contained in p. 6,7,8 and 9 are applicable to the affiliation.
The prohibition contained in p. 2 and 3 are applied even if the relationship depends on natural filiation.
The court, on appeal from the interested parties, by decree submitted in Chamber of Council, after having herd from the prosecuting attorney, can authorize the marriage in the cases indicated in p. 3 and 5, even if it concerns the affiliation or natural filiation. The authorization can also be given in the case indicated in p. 4 when the affinity derives from marriage declared null.
The decree is notified to the interested parties and the prosecuting attorney.
The dispositions of paragraphs four, five and six of art.84 are applied.
Art. 90 Absence of minor
In accordance with the decree in art. 84 the Court or the Court of Appeals name, if the circumstances require it, a special curator that assists the minor in contracting the marriage.
SECTION VI
ANNULMENT OF MARRIAGE
Art. 117 Marriage contracted in violation of art. 84, 86, 87 and 88
A marriage contracted in violation of art. 86, 87 and 88 can be appealed by the spouses, by the next of kin, by the prosecuting attorney and by all those who have a legitimate and actual interest to appeal it (125,127).
The marriage contracted in violation of art. 84 can be appealed by the spouses, by any of their parents and by the prosecuting attorney. The annulment can be asked personally by the minor no later than a year after he attains majority. The demand, presented by a parent or by a prosecuting attorney, can be rejected when, also in view of the judgment, the minor has become an adult or there has been conception or procreation and in such case it is assured the will of the minor to maintain the bond of matrimony.
The marriage contracted by the spouse of the absentee cannot be contested as long as the absence lasts.
In the case in which an agreement could have been reached according to paragraph four of art. 87, the marriage cannot be contested later than a year after it is cele/pated.
The disposition of the first paragraph of the present article is applied also in the case of invalidity of the marriage as defined in art. 68.
Art. 122 Violence and error
The marriage can be contested by the spouse whose consent has been extorted through violence or fear of exceptional gravity deriving from causes alien to the spouse.
The marriage can also be contested by the spouse whose consent is given in error on the identity of the person or of essential error on the personal qualities of the other spouse.
The error on the personal qualities is essential in case, taken into account the conditions of the other spouse, it is assured that the same person would not have given his/her consent if he/she had known them precisely and provided the error concerns:
l) the existence of a physical or mental disease or an anomaly or sexual deviation, such as to prevent the normal course of married life;
2) the existence of a sentence for not intentional offence to imprisonment for a term not less than five years, unless a rehabilitation intervenes before the cele/pation of the marriage. The annulment cannot be asked before the sentence has become irrevocable;
3) professional or habitual delinquency declaration;
4) the circumstance in which the other spouse is condemned for crimes concerning prostitution with a sentence term not less than two years. The annulment cannot be asked before the sentence has become irrevocable;
5) pregnancy caused by a person other than the guilty person, provided that it has been disownment according to art. 233, if the was a normal delivery.
The annulment cannot be asked if there has been cohabitation for a year after the violence has stopped or the causes that have determined the fear or an error has been discovered.
Art. 126 Separation of the spouses pending suit of judgment
When the demand of invalidity of the marriage is asked, the Court can, on request of one of the spouses, order their temporary separation during the judgment; it can order it also by office, if both the spouses or one of them are minor or banned.
PART IV
Rights and duties deriving from the marriage
Art. 143 Rights and mutual duties of spouses
With the marriage husband and wife acquire the same rights and assume the same duties.
From the marriage derives mutual obligation of fidelity, of moral and material attendance, of collaboration in the interest of the family and of cohabitation (Cod. Pen. 570).
Both spouses are held, each one in relation to their own means and their own ability to professional or domestic work, to contribute to the needs of the family.
Art. 143 bis Last name of wife
The wife adds to her own name the last name of the husband and she maintains it during widowhood, until that she marries again.
PART V
Dissolution of the marriage and the separation of spouses
Art. 149 Dissolution of marriage
The marriage dissolves with the death of one of the spouses and in other cases defined by law.
The effects of marriage cele/pated religiously, according to art. 82 or art. 83, and relevant regulation terminate with the death of one of the spouses and in the other cases defined by law.
Art. 150 Personal separation
The personal separation of the spouses is admitted.
The separation can be judicial or consensual.
The right to ask for judicial separation or homologation of a consensual one is exclusively up to the spouses.
Art. 151 Judicial separation
The separation can be asked, when take place, also independently from the will of one or both the spouses, such facts to render the pursuit of cohabitation intolerable or to /ping serious prejudice to the education of the children.
The judge, giving out the sentence of the separation, declares, where there exist the circumstances and as is required, which of the spouses is responsible for the separation in consideration of his/her behaviour contrary to the duties that derive from the marriage.
Art. 156 Effects of the separation on the patrimonial relationships between spouses
The judge, by the sentence of the separation, establishes to give an advantage to the spouse who is not responsible for the separation, the right to receive from the other spouse the sum that is necessary to his/her maintenance, in case he/she does not have adequate personal income.
The basis of such obligation is determined in relation to the circumstances and the incomes of the obliged party.
The is the obligation of alimony according to art. 433 and following.
The judge who declares the separation can impose on the spouse to give a suitable real or personal guarantee if there exists a risk that she/he can evade the obligation set out in previous paragraphs and art. 155.
The sentence constitutes grounds for the registration of the judicial mortgage according to art. 2818.
In case of non-compliance, upon request of the petitioner, the judge can arrange for the seizure of part of the assets of the respondent and order a third party, paying periodically sums of money to the respondent, that a part of these sums are paid directly to the petitioner.
Should the need arise, the judge, on request of a party, can arrange revoke or modify the provisions mentioned in the previous paragraphs.
SECTION III
Legal joint ownership of property
Art. 177 Object of joint ownership of property
Objects of the joint ownership of property:
a) the purchases completed by the two spouses jointly or separately during the marriage, to the exclusion of those relating to personal assets;
b) the fruits of each of the spouses personal assets, received and not consumed at the dissolution of the joint ownership of property;
c) the proceeds of the separated activities of each of the spouses if, at the dissolution of the joint ownership of property, they have not been consumed;
d) the companies managed by both of the spouses and constituted after the marriage.
In case it concerns the companies owned by one of the spouses before the marriage but managed by both, the joint ownership of property concerns only the profits and the increments.
Art. 178 Assets assigned to the exercise of the enterprise
The assets assigned to the exercise of the enterprise of one of the spouses constituted after the marriage and the increments of the enterprise constituted also previously, are considered as belonging to the joint ownership of property only if they exist at the moment of the dissolution of it.
Art. 179 Personal Assets
Do not constitute object of the joint ownership of property and are personal assets of the spouse:
a) the assets of which, before the marriage, the spouse was owner or to which he was entitled to full right of use;
b) the acquired assets subsequent to the marriage as a donation or succession, as a gift or in a will where it is not specified that they are part of the joint ownership of property;
c) the assets of strict personal use of each spouse and their accessories;
d) the assets that serve in the exercise of the profession of the spouse, except those assigned to the running of a company, which is part of the joint ownership of property;
e) the assets obtained as compensation for damages, as well as the pension relating to the partial or total work disability;
f) the assets acquired with the price of the transfer of the above listed personal assets or with their exchange, provided that it has been specifically declared at the moment of purchase (2647).
The purchase of immovable assets, or of movable assets listed in art. 2683, carried out after the marriage, is excluded from the joint ownership of property, according to c), d) and f) of the previous paragraph, when such exclusion occurs because of purchase if the other spouse has been part also of it.
Art. 180 Administration of the assets of joint ownership of property
The administration of the assets of the joint ownership of property and the representation in judgment for the actions related to it are up to both the spouses separately.
The fulfilment of the actions exceeding the ordinary administration, as well as stipulation of the contracts with which they are granted or acquired personal rights of use and the representation in judgment for the relative actions are up to both the spouses jointly.
Art. 181 Refusal of consent
If one of the spouses refuses to consent to the stipulation of an act of extraordinary administration or to the other acts for which the consent is demanded, the other spouse can address the judge in order to obtain the authorization in the case in which the stipulation of the action is necessary in the interest of the family or of the company, that according to regulation d) of art. 177, is part of the joint ownership of property.
Art. 182 Administration entrusted to one of spouses
In case of distance or another impediment of one of the spouses, the other, not having power of attorney from the former according to public act (2699) or private authenticated document (2703), can undertake, having previously obtained authorization of the judge and with possible cautions established by judge, the necessary actions for which is required, upon provision of art. 180, the consent of both the spouses.
In the case of common management of company, one of the spouses can be delegated by the other to fulfil all the necessary actions for the running of the enterprise.
Art. 183 Exclusion from administration
If one of the spouses is a minor or cannot administrate, ie she/he has badly managed, the other spouse can ask the judge to exclude she/he from the administration.
The spouse excluded from administration can ask the judge to be reintegrated, if the were less reasons that have determined the exclusion.
The exclusion regards right of the banned spouse and remains valid until the ban is not lifted.
Art. 184 Actions completed without necessary consent
The actions completed by a spouse without the necessary consent of the other spouse and thus not co-validated are void if they concern immovable assets or movable assets listed in art. 2683.
The action can be proposed by the spouse whose consent was necessary within a year (2964) from the date in which he/she was acquainted with the action and in any case within a year from the transcription date. If the action was not transcribed and the spouse was not acquainted with it before the dissolution of the joint ownership of property, the action cannot be proposed a year after that same dissolution.
If the actions concern mobile assets different from those indicated in the first paragraph, the spouse who has done them without the consent of the other is obliged on request of the latter to reconstruct the joint ownership property in the state in which it was before the action was completed or, in case that is not possible, to pay the equivalent according to values current in period of the reconstitution of the joint ownership of property.
Art. 185 Administration of the personal assets of spouse
To the administration of the assets that do not re-enter in the joint ownership of property or the property fund apply dispositions of paragraphs two, three and four of art. 217.
Art. 187 Obligations contracted by the spouses before marriage
The assets of the joint ownership of property, except what has been disposed in art. 189, do not correspond to the obligations contracted by one of the spouses before the marriage.
Art. 191 Dissolution of the joint ownership of property
The joint ownership of property is dissolved on declaration of absence or presumed death of one of the spouses, on cancellation, on dissolution or termination of the effects of the marriage, on personal separation, on judicial separation of the assets, on conventional change of the property settlement, on bankruptcy of one of the spouses.
In the case of a company, according to d) of art. 177, the dissolution of the joint ownership of property can be decided, by agreement of the spouses, in compliance with art. 162.
Art. 193 Judicial Separation of Assets
The judicial separation of the assets can be decided in case of a ban (417) or inability (414) of one of the spouses or mismanagement of the joint ownership of property.
It can also be decided when the mismanagement of the business of one of the spouses or his/her conduct in the administration of the assets puts at risk the interests of the other spouse or the joint ownership of property or the family, or when one of the spouses does not contribute to its needs in proportion to his/her own capacities or work ability.
The separation can be asked by one of the spouses or his/her legal representative.
The sentence that declares the separation is retroactive back to the day on which the demand has been forwarded and it has the effect establishing the settlement of separation of the assets stated in section V of the present PART, apart from the rights of the third party.
The sentence is written in the margin of the marriage certificate and on the original copy of matrimonial contract (2653).