The community of acquests : its nature and effects with regard to the spouses and third parties

Abstract

Marriage, from the moment it is celebrated, brings forth certain important effects of a patrimonial character besides the personal effects between the spouses. On the one hand there is the personal relationship between the spouses, and on the other hand there is the patrimonial relationship over the property they possess since before the celebration of the marriage and which is acquired during the marriage. This patrimonial relationship, undoubtedly, depends on whether or not, the spouses before the marriage or after the marriage by means of the authority of the Court of Voluntary Jurisdiction, have entered into a marriage agreement by means of a public deed drawn up by a Notary Public and registered in the Public Registry. If the spouses have entered into a marriage agreement before the celebration of the marriage, their relationship with regard to their property is governed by the matrimonial regime which has been chosen in the marriage agreement. If the spouses didn't enter into a marriage agreement, their relationship is regulated according to the matrimonial regime, which is established by law in the absence of such agreement. The law, as amended by Act XXI of 1993, chooses the system of Community of Acquests in the absence of a special agreement entered into by the spouses. The future spouses before the marriage are free to enter into a marriage agreement and establish a matrimonial regime which suits their interests best, whereby they can exclude the regime of community by choosing the system of separation of property or else choose a different kind of community regime which is the community of residue under separate administration which is a regime recently introduced in our law by Act XXI of 1993. But if the spouses establish the community of acquests by means of an agreement, they aren't free to stipulate certain derogations from the provisions of the Civil Code relating to the community of acquests. As from the I st of December 1993 10, persons who intend to marry and regulate their patrimonial relationship as from the date of the celebration of their marriage, have a wide choice. They can either choose the system of community of acquests, the system of community of residue under separate administration or the system of separation of property. Under the law as it stood before Act XXI of 1993, the choice was restricted between either the community of acquests, which could be modified by means of an agreement or the system of separation of property.