Spouses are sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing par­ti­cip­a­tion in ac­quired prop­erty provided they have not agreed oth­er­wise in a mar­it­al agree­ment and provided no ex­traordin­ary mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime has come in­to ef­fect.

¹A mar­it­al agree­ment may be con­cluded be­fore or after the wed­ding.

²The pro­spect­ive spouses or the spouses may choose, set aside or modi­fy their mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime only with­in the lim­its of the law.

¹A per­son wish­ing to enter in­to a mar­it­al agree­ment must have ca­pa­city of judge­ment.

²Minors, or adults sub­ject to a deputy­ship that cov­ers the con­clu­sion of a mar­it­al agree­ment re­quire the con­sent of their leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive.¹

The mar­it­al agree­ment must be ex­ecuted as a pub­lic deed and signed by the parties and, where ap­plic­able, by the leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive.

¹At the re­quest of one spouse, the court shall or­der a sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty where there is good cause to do so.

²In par­tic­u­lar, good cause ex­ists:

1.

if the oth­er spouse is over­indebted or his or her share of the com­mon prop­erty has been dis­trained;

2.

if the oth­er spouse is en­dan­ger­ing the in­terests of the ap­plic­ant or of the mar­it­al uni­on;

3.

if the oth­er spouse un­reas­on­ably with­holds the con­sent re­quired for the dis­pos­al of com­mon prop­erty;

4.

if the oth­er spouse re­fuses to provide the ap­plic­ant with in­form­a­tion con­cern­ing his or her in­come, as­sets and debts or con­cern­ing com­mon prop­erty;

5.

if the oth­er spouse per­man­ently lacks ca­pa­city of judge­ment.

³Where a spouse per­man­ently lacks ca­pa­city of judge­ment, his or her leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive may like­wise re­quest sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty for this reas­on.

¹The spouses may at any time re­in­state their pre­vi­ous mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime or im­ple­ment a new one by mar­it­al agree­ment.

²If the reas­on for the sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty no longer ex­ists, at the re­quest of one spouse the court may dir­ect that the pre­vi­ous mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime be re­in­stated.

If a spouse liv­ing un­der the com­munity of prop­erty re­gime is de­clared bank­rupt, sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty takes ef­fect ex of­fi­cio.

If a spouse liv­ing un­der the com­munity of prop­erty re­gime is pur­sued for a per­son­al debt and his or her share of the com­mon prop­erty is dis­trained, the debt en­force­ment su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity may re­quest that the court or­der a sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty.

¹The re­quest is dir­ec­ted against both spouses.

²...²

¹If the cred­it­ors have been sat­is­fied, at the re­quest of one spouse the court may or­der the res­tor­a­tion of the com­munity of prop­erty re­gime.

²By mar­it­al agree­ment, the spouses may opt for the par­ti­cip­a­tion in ac­quired prop­erty re­gime.

Whenev­er the sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty re­gime comes in­to ef­fect, the li­quid­a­tion of the pre­vi­ous re­gime is gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions ap­plic­able to the lat­ter, un­less the law provides oth­er­wise.

¹The es­tab­lish­ment, vari­ation or li­quid­a­tion of a mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime may not have the ef­fect of re­leas­ing an as­set with which one of the spouses or the mar­it­al uni­on had hitherto been li­able to cred­it­ors from such li­ab­il­ity.

²If such an as­set has been trans­ferred to the oth­er spouse, the lat­ter must pay the debt but may be re­leased from such li­ab­il­ity to the ex­tent that he or she may prove that the as­set re­ceived is worth less than the debt.

¹Where one spouse ex­pressly or ta­citly en­trusts man­age­ment of his or her as­sets to the oth­er, the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing agency ap­ply un­less oth­er­wise agreed.

²The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing set­tle­ment of debts between spouses are re­served.

¹Each spouse may at any time re­quire the oth­er’s co­oper­a­tion in draw­ing up an in­vent­ory of their joint as­sets in the form of a pub­lic deed.

²Such an in­vent­ory is deemed ac­cur­ate if made with­in one year of the in­clu­sion of such as­sets un­der the re­gime.

The mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime of par­ti­cip­a­tion in ac­quired prop­erty com­prises the prop­erty ac­quired dur­ing the mar­riage and the in­di­vidu­al prop­erty of each spouse.

¹Ac­quired prop­erty com­prises those as­sets which a spouse has ac­quired for valu­able con­sid­er­a­tion dur­ing the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime.

²In par­tic­u­lar, the ac­quired prop­erty of a spouse com­prises:

1.

the pro­ceeds from his or her em­ploy­ment;

2.

be­ne­fits re­ceived from staff wel­fare schemes, so­cial se­cur­ity and so­cial wel­fare in­sti­tu­tions;

3.

com­pens­a­tion for in­ab­il­ity to work;

4.

in­come de­rived from his or her own prop­erty;

5.

prop­erty ac­quired to re­place ac­quired prop­erty.

By op­er­a­tion of law, a spouse’s in­di­vidu­al prop­erty com­prises:

1.

per­son­al ef­fects used ex­clus­ively by that spouse;

2.

as­sets be­long­ing to one spouse at the be­gin­ning of the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime or ac­quired later at no cost by in­her­it­ance or oth­er­wise;

3.

claims for sat­is­fac­tion;

4.

ac­quis­i­tions that re­place in­di­vidu­al prop­erty.

¹Un­der a mar­it­al agree­ment, spouses may de­clare ac­quired prop­erty to be in­di­vidu­al prop­erty set aside for pro­fes­sion­al or busi­ness use.

²Fur­ther­more, spouses may stip­u­late in a mar­it­al agree­ment that in­come from in­di­vidu­al prop­erty does not qual­i­fy as ac­quired prop­erty.

¹Any per­son who as­serts that a spe­cif­ic ob­ject or as­set is owned by one or oth­er spouse bears the bur­den of proof.

²If no such proof may be ad­duced, the ob­ject or as­set is pre­sumed to be in the co-own­er­ship of both spouses.

³Un­til proven oth­er­wise, all as­sets of a spouse are deemed to be ac­quired prop­erty.

¹With­in the lim­its of the law, each spouse ad­min­is­ters and en­joys the be­ne­fits of his or her in­di­vidu­al prop­erty and has power of dis­pos­al over it.

²If an as­set is in the co-own­er­ship of both spouses, neither spouse may dis­pose of his or her share in it without the oth­er’s con­sent, un­less oth­er­wise agreed.

Each spouse is li­able for his or her debts with all his or her prop­erty.

¹The mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime does not af­fect the ma­tur­ity of debts con­trac­ted between spouses.

²However, if pay­ment of debts or the resti­tu­tion of ob­jects owed by a spouse would cause him or her ser­i­ous dif­fi­culties which might en­danger the mar­it­al uni­on, such spouse may re­quest a time lim­it with­in which to sat­is­fy the claim; the claim is to be se­cured where reas­on­able in the cir­cum­stances.

¹The mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime is dis­solved on the death of a spouse or on im­ple­ment­a­tion of a dif­fer­ent re­gime.

²In the case of di­vorce, sep­ar­a­tion, an­nul­ment of the mar­riage or a court or­der for sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty, the dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime takes ret­ro­act­ive ef­fect as of the date on which the ap­plic­a­tion was filed.

¹Each spouse shall take back any of his or her prop­erty that is in the oth­er’s pos­ses­sion.

²Where one spouse shows an over­rid­ing in­terest in gain­ing sole pos­ses­sion of an ob­ject or as­set in co-own­er­ship, and not­with­stand­ing any oth­er leg­al meas­ures avail­able, he or she may re­quest that said ob­ject or as­set be al­loc­ated to him or her in re­turn for com­pens­a­tion.

³The spouses settle their debts to each oth­er.

¹Where a spouse has con­trib­uted to the ac­quis­i­tion, im­prove­ment or pre­ser­va­tion of an as­set be­long­ing to the oth­er without re­ceiv­ing equi­val­ent com­pens­a­tion, and where at the time of the li­quid­a­tion that as­set has in­creased in value, then his or her claim cor­res­ponds to his or her pro­por­tion­ate con­tri­bu­tion and is cal­cu­lated ac­cord­ing to the cur­rent value of the as­set; if, con­versely, the as­set has de­creased in value, his or her claim cor­res­ponds to the ori­gin­al con­tri­bu­tion.

²If such an as­set had already been ali­en­ated be­fore­hand, the claim is cal­cu­lated ac­cord­ing to the pro­ceeds ob­tained and is due im­me­di­ately.

³By writ­ten agree­ment, spouses may ex­clude par­ti­cip­a­tion in the in­creased value or vary the pro­por­tion there­of.

¹The prop­erty ac­quired dur­ing mar­riage and the in­di­vidu­al prop­erty of each spouse are sep­ar­ated ac­cord­ing to their value at the time of the dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime.

²Lump sum pen­sion or in­valid­ity be­ne­fits re­ceived by a spouse are ad­ded to his or her in­di­vidu­al prop­erty in an amount equi­val­ent to the present value of the pen­sion or in­valid­ity an­nu­ity to which he or she would be en­titled on dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime.

¹The fol­low­ing are ad­ded to the prop­erty ac­quired dur­ing mar­riage:

1.

the value of dis­pos­i­tions made without con­sid­er­a­tion by one spouse without the oth­er’s con­sent dur­ing the five years pre­ced­ing the dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime, save for the usu­al oc­ca­sion­al gifts;

2.

the value of as­sets dis­posed of by one spouse dur­ing the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime with the in­ten­tion of di­min­ish­ing the oth­er’s share.

²...¹

¹Where debts in­curred in con­nec­tion with ac­quired prop­erty have been paid out of in­di­vidu­al prop­erty or where debts in­curred in con­nec­tion with in­di­vidu­al prop­erty have been paid out of ac­quired prop­erty, there is a claim for com­pens­a­tion when the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime is li­quid­ated.

²A debt en­cum­bers the prop­erty in re­la­tion to which it was in­curred, and in the event of doubt, it en­cum­bers the ac­quired prop­erty.

³If as­sets be­long­ing to one cat­egory of prop­erty have con­trib­uted to the ac­quis­i­tion, im­prove­ment or pre­ser­va­tion of as­sets be­long­ing to the oth­er and if the value of the lat­ter has in­creased or di­min­ished, the claim for com­pens­a­tion cor­res­ponds to the pro­por­tion­ate con­tri­bu­tion made and is cal­cu­lated ac­cord­ing to the value of the as­sets at the time of the li­quid­a­tion or their dis­pos­al.

¹The re­main­ing total value of the ac­quired prop­erty, in­clud­ing the as­sets ad­ded in and claims for com­pens­a­tion, and after de­duc­tion of the debts en­cum­ber­ing the ac­quired prop­erty, con­sti­tutes the sur­plus.

²A de­fi­cit is dis­reg­arded.

For the pur­pose of li­quid­at­ing the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime, as­sets are stated at their mar­ket value.

¹An ag­ri­cul­tur­al en­ter­prise which one spouse con­tin­ues to op­er­ate as own­er or in re­spect of which the sur­viv­ing spouse or one of the is­sue makes a jus­ti­fied claim for un­di­vided al­loc­a­tion is stated at its cap­it­al­ised value when cal­cu­lat­ing the pro­por­tion­ate ad­ded value and the claim for par­ti­cip­a­tion.

²The own­er of the ag­ri­cul­tur­al en­ter­prise or his or her heirs may bring a claim against the oth­er spouse for pro­por­tion­ate ad­ded value or par­ti­cip­a­tion only in the amount they would re­ceive if the busi­ness were stated at its mar­ket value.

³The in­her­it­ance law pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing valu­ation and the par­ti­cip­a­tion of co-heirs in the profit ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

¹The al­loc­a­tion value may be in­creased by a suit­able amount if jus­ti­fied by spe­cial cir­cum­stances.

²Spe­cial cir­cum­stances in­clude in par­tic­u­lar the main­ten­ance re­quire­ments of the sur­viv­ing spouse, the pur­chase price of the ag­ri­cul­tur­al en­ter­prise in­clud­ing cap­it­al in­vest­ments, and the fin­an­cial cir­cum­stances of the spouse to whom the ag­ri­cul­tur­al en­ter­prise be­longs.

¹For the pur­pose of valu­ing the ac­quired prop­erty at hand at the time of the dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime, the de­fin­ing junc­ture is the time of the di­vi­sion.

²For as­sets ad­ded to the ac­quired prop­erty, the de­fin­ing junc­ture is the date on which they were ali­en­ated.

¹Each spouse or his or her heirs is or are en­titled to one-half of the sur­plus of the oth­er spouse.

²The claims are set off.

¹A dif­fer­ent par­ti­cip­a­tion in the sur­plus may be agreed by mar­it­al agree­ment.

²Such agree­ments must not ad­versely af­fect the stat­utory in­her­it­ance en­ti­tle­ments of chil­dren who are not the com­mon is­sue of the spouses or those of the is­sue of such chil­dren.

In the case of di­vorce, sep­ar­a­tion, an­nul­ment of mar­riage or sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty by court or­der, agree­ments vary­ing the stat­utory par­ti­cip­a­tion in the sur­plus are val­id only if the mar­it­al prop­erty agree­ment ex­pressly so provides.

¹If im­me­di­ate pay­ment of the par­ti­cip­a­tion claim and the share of the in­creased value would cause ser­i­ous dif­fi­culties for the debt­or, he or she may re­quest a de­fer­ral.

²Un­less oth­er­wise agreed by the spouses, the par­ti­cip­a­tion claim and the share of the in­creased value bear in­terest as of com­ple­tion of the di­vi­sion of prop­erty and, where jus­ti­fied in the cir­cum­stances, se­cur­ity must be fur­nished.

¹To en­sure that the sur­viv­ing spouse may main­tain his or her ac­cus­tomed life­style, at his or her re­quest he or she will be gran­ted a usu­fruct of or a right of res­id­ence in the home in which the spouses lived and which be­longed to the de­ceased spouse, and this will be set off against his or her en­ti­tle­ment, sub­ject to any con­trary pro­vi­sion in the mar­it­al agree­ment.

²On the same con­di­tions, he or she may re­quest that own­er­ship of the house­hold ef­fects be trans­ferred to him or her.

³Where jus­ti­fied in the cir­cum­stances, at the re­quest of the sur­viv­ing spouse or the oth­er leg­al heirs of the de­ceased spouse, own­er­ship of the home may be gran­ted rather than a usu­fruct or right of res­id­ence.

⁴The sur­viv­ing spouse may not claim such rights in re­spect of premises in which the de­ceased prac­tised a pro­fes­sion or ran a busi­ness and which are re­quired by one of his or her is­sue in or­der to con­tin­ue said pro­fes­sion or busi­ness, sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of ag­ri­cul­tur­al in­her­it­ance law.

¹If the as­sets of the debt­or or his or her es­tate are in­suf­fi­cient to cov­er the par­ti­cip­a­tion claim on di­vi­sion of the prop­erty, the en­titled spouse or his or her heirs may de­mand from third-party be­ne­fi­ciar­ies the re­turn of such dis­pos­i­tions as are to be ad­ded to the ac­quired prop­erty up to the amount of the short­fall.

²The right to bring a claim is ex­tin­guished one year after the spouse or his or her heirs learn of the in­fringe­ment of their rights, but in any event ten years after the dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime.

³Moreover, the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing claims in abate­ment un­der in­her­it­ance law ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.¹

The mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime of com­munity of prop­erty com­prises the com­mon prop­erty and the in­di­vidu­al prop­erty of each spouse.

¹The gen­er­al com­munity of prop­erty com­bines the as­sets and in­come of the spouses in­to com­mon prop­erty, with the ex­cep­tion of those as­sets which by law con­sti­tute in­di­vidu­al prop­erty.

²The com­mon prop­erty be­longs to both spouses jointly.

³Neither spouse is en­titled to dis­pose of his or her share of the com­mon prop­erty.

¹By mar­it­al agree­ment, the spouses may re­strict com­munity of prop­erty to the prop­erty ac­quired dur­ing mar­riage.

²Rev­en­ue from in­di­vidu­al prop­erty be­comes com­mon prop­erty.

¹By mar­it­al agree­ment, the spouses may ex­clude from the com­munity of prop­erty spe­cif­ic as­sets or types of as­sets, such as land, a spouse’s in­come from work or as­sets used to prac­tise a pro­fes­sion or run a busi­ness.

²Un­less oth­er­wise agreed, in­come from such as­sets does not be­come com­mon prop­erty.

¹In­di­vidu­al prop­erty may be cre­ated by mar­it­al agree­ment, dis­pos­i­tions by third parties or by law.

²By law, items for the ex­clus­ive per­son­al use of a spouse and claims for sat­is­fac­tion con­sti­tute in­di­vidu­al prop­erty.

³A spouse’s stat­utory in­her­it­ance en­ti­tle­ment may not pass to him or her from his or her re­l­at­ives as in­di­vidu­al prop­erty where the mar­it­al agree­ment provides that such as­sets are com­mon prop­erty.

All as­sets are pre­sumed to be com­mon prop­erty un­less proven to be the in­di­vidu­al prop­erty of a spouse.

¹The spouses must man­age the com­mon prop­erty in the best in­terests of the mar­it­al uni­on.

²With­in the lim­its of every­day house­keep­ing, each spouse may in­cur com­mit­ments on be­half of the mar­it­al uni­on and dis­pose of com­mon prop­erty.

¹Out­side the lim­its of every­day house­keep­ing, the spouses may in­cur com­mit­ments on be­half of the com­mon prop­erty and dis­pose there­of only jointly or in­di­vidu­ally with the oth­er’s con­sent.

²Third parties are en­titled to pre­sume such con­sent provided they do not know or can­not be ex­pec­ted to know that it is ab­sent.

³The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing rep­res­ent­a­tion of the mar­it­al uni­on are re­served.

If a spouse prac­tises a pro­fes­sion or runs a busi­ness on his or her own us­ing com­mon prop­erty with the oth­er’s con­sent, he or she may con­clude all trans­ac­tions that such activ­it­ies en­tail.

¹Without the oth­er’s con­sent, a spouse is not en­titled to re­nounce an in­her­it­ance which would be­come com­mon prop­erty or ac­cept in­her­it­ance of an over­indebted es­tate.

²If the spouse is un­able to ob­tain con­sent or if it is with­held without good cause, he or she may pe­ti­tion the court.¹

¹In re­la­tion to deal­ings con­cern­ing com­mon prop­erty, on dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime, each spouse is li­able as if he or she were an agent.

²The costs of man­age­ment are borne by the com­mon prop­erty.

¹Each spouse ad­min­is­ters and dis­poses of his or her in­di­vidu­al prop­erty with­in the lim­its of the law.

²If in­come ac­crues to in­di­vidu­al prop­erty, the man­age­ment costs are borne by such prop­erty.

Each spouse is li­able with his or her in­di­vidu­al prop­erty and the com­mon prop­erty:

1.

for debts in­curred in ex­er­cising his or her powers to rep­res­ent the mar­it­al uni­on or in man­aging the com­mon prop­erty;

2.

for debts in­curred in the pur­suit of a pro­fes­sion or busi­ness, provided com­mon prop­erty has been used for this or the in­come there­from be­comes com­mon prop­erty;

3.

for debts for which the oth­er spouse is also per­son­ally li­able;

4.

for debts in re­spect of which the spouses have agreed with third parties that their com­mon prop­erty as well as the debt­or’s in­di­vidu­al prop­erty will be li­able.

¹For all oth­er debts a spouse is li­able only to the ex­tent of his or her in­di­vidu­al prop­erty and half the value of the com­mon prop­erty.

²Claims arising from the un­just en­rich­ment of the mar­it­al uni­on are re­served.

¹The mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime does not af­fect the ma­tur­ity of debts con­trac­ted between spouses.

²However, if pay­ment of debts or the resti­tu­tion of ob­jects owed by a spouse would cause him or her ser­i­ous dif­fi­culties which might en­danger the mar­it­al uni­on, such spouse may re­quest to be gran­ted a time lim­it in which to sat­is­fy the claim; the claim is to be se­cured where reas­on­able in the cir­cum­stances.

¹The mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime is dis­solved on the death of a spouse, the im­ple­ment­a­tion of a dif­fer­ent re­gime or when one of the spouses is de­clared bank­rupt.

²In the case of di­vorce, sep­ar­a­tion, an­nul­ment of the mar­riage or a court or­der for sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty, the dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime takes ret­ro­act­ive ef­fect as of the date on which the ap­plic­a­tion was filed.

³When de­term­in­ing the com­pos­i­tion of com­mon prop­erty and in­di­vidu­al prop­erty, the de­fin­ing junc­ture is the dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime.

Lump sum pen­sion or in­valid­ity be­ne­fits re­ceived by a spouse that have be­come com­mon prop­erty are ad­ded to his or her in­di­vidu­al prop­erty in the cap­it­al­ised amount equi­val­ent to the pen­sion or in­valid­ity an­nu­ity to which he or she would be en­titled on dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime.

¹Where debts en­cum­ber­ing one cat­egory of prop­erty were paid out of as­sets be­long­ing to the oth­er, re­spect­ive com­pens­a­tion claims between the com­mon prop­erty and the in­di­vidu­al prop­erty of each spouse arise on the dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime.

²A debt en­cum­bers the prop­erty in re­la­tion to which it was in­curred, but in the case of doubt it en­cum­bers the com­mon prop­erty.

Where the in­di­vidu­al prop­erty of a spouse or the com­mon prop­erty has con­trib­uted to the ac­quis­i­tion, im­prove­ment or pre­ser­va­tion of an as­set be­long­ing to an­oth­er cat­egory of prop­erty, the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing in­creased value in re­la­tion to par­ti­cip­a­tion in ac­quired prop­erty ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

For the pur­pose of valu­ing the com­mon prop­erty at hand at the time of the dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime, the de­fin­ing junc­ture is the time of the di­vi­sion.

¹If the com­munity of prop­erty re­gime is dis­solved by the death of a spouse or the im­ple­ment­a­tion of a dif­fer­ent mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime, each party or his or her heirs is en­titled to one-half of the com­mon prop­erty.

²A dif­fer­ent meth­od of di­vi­sion may be agreed by mar­it­al agree­ment.

³Such agree­ments must not ad­versely af­fect the stat­utory in­her­it­ance en­ti­tle­ments of the spouse’s is­sue.

¹On di­vorce, sep­ar­a­tion, an­nul­ment of the mar­riage or sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty by law or court or­der, each spouse shall take back from the com­mon prop­erty such prop­erty as would have been his or her in­di­vidu­al prop­erty un­der the par­ti­cip­a­tion in ac­quired prop­erty re­gime.

²The re­main­ing com­mon prop­erty is di­vided equally between the spouses.

³Agree­ments to vary the stat­utory meth­od of di­vi­sion are val­id only if the mar­it­al agree­ment ex­pressly so provides.

If the com­munity of prop­erty is dis­solved by the death of a spouse, the sur­viv­ing spouse may re­quest that such prop­erty as would have been his or her in­di­vidu­al prop­erty un­der the par­ti­cip­a­tion in ac­quired prop­erty re­gime be al­loc­ated to him or her and count to­ward his or her share of the es­tate.

¹If the home in which the spouses lived or any house­hold ef­fects be­long to the com­mon prop­erty, the sur­viv­ing spouse may re­quest that such prop­erty be al­loc­ated to him or her and count to­ward his or her share of the es­tate.

²Where jus­ti­fied in the cir­cum­stances, at the re­quest of the sur­viv­ing spouse or the oth­er leg­al heirs of the de­ceased spouse, a usu­fruct or right of res­id­ence may be gran­ted in lieu of own­er­ship.

³If the com­munity of prop­erty is not dis­solved by death, each spouse may make such re­quests where he or she may show an over­rid­ing in­terest.

If a spouse demon­strates an over­rid­ing in­terest, he or she may also de­mand that oth­er as­sets be al­loc­ated to him or her and count to­ward his or her share.

In oth­er re­spects the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the di­vi­sion of prop­erty in co-own­er­ship and the di­vi­sion of es­tates ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

With­in the lim­its of the law, each spouse shall ad­min­is­ter and en­joy the be­ne­fits of his or her own prop­erty and has power of dis­pos­al over it.

¹Any per­son who as­serts that a spe­cif­ic ob­ject or as­set is owned by one or oth­er spouse bears the bur­den of proof.

²If no such proof may be ad­duced, there is a pre­sump­tion of co-own­er­ship.

Each spouse is li­able for his or her debts with all his or her prop­erty.

¹The mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime does not af­fect the ma­tur­ity of debts con­trac­ted between spouses.

²However, if pay­ment of debts or the resti­tu­tion of ob­jects owed by a spouse would cause him or her ser­i­ous dif­fi­culties which might en­danger the mar­it­al uni­on, such spouse may re­quest to be gran­ted a time lim­it in which to sat­is­fy the claim; the claim is to be se­cured where reas­on­able in the cir­cum­stances.

Where one spouse shows an over­rid­ing in­terest in gain­ing sole pos­ses­sion of an ob­ject or as­set in co-own­er­ship, and not­with­stand­ing any oth­er leg­al meas­ures avail­able, he or she may re­quest that said ob­ject or as­set be al­loc­ated to him or her in re­turn for com­pens­a­tion.

¹The par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship is formed between child and moth­er on the birth of the child.

²It is formed between child and fath­er by vir­tue of the lat­ter be­ing mar­ried to the moth­er, by re­cog­ni­tion or by court de­clar­a­tion.

³Moreover, the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship is formed by ad­op­tion.

¹Where a child is born in wed­lock, the hus­band is deemed to be the fath­er.

²If the hus­band dies, he is deemed to be the fath­er provided the child is born with­in 300 days of his death or, if born there­after, if it is shown that the child was con­ceived be­fore the hus­band’s death.

³If the hus­band has been de­clared pre­sumed dead, he is deemed to have been the fath­er provided the child is born with­in 300 days of the life-threat­en­ing event or the last sign of life.

¹The pre­sump­tion of pa­tern­ity may be chal­lenged in court:

1.

by the hus­band;

2.²

by the child if the spouses cease liv­ing to­geth­er while the child is still a minor.

²The hus­band’s chal­lenge is dir­ec­ted against the child and the moth­er, that of the child against the hus­band and the moth­er.

³The hus­band has no right of chal­lenge if he con­sen­ted to im­preg­na­tion by a third party. The child’s right to chal­lenge pa­tern­ity is sub­ject to the Re­pro­duct­ive Medi­cine Act of 18 Decem­ber 1998³.⁴

¹If a child was con­ceived in wed­lock, the chal­len­ging party must show that the hus­band is not the fath­er.

²The child is pre­sumed to have been con­ceived in wed­lock if it was born no earli­er than 180 days after the wed­ding and no later than 300 days after the mar­riage was dis­solved as a res­ult of death.²

¹If a child was con­ceived be­fore the mar­riage was con­cluded or at a time when the spouses were liv­ing apart, no fur­ther grounds need be giv­en for the chal­lenge.

²However, in such cases the pa­tern­ity of the hus­band is still pre­sumed where the court is sat­is­fied that he had sexu­al in­ter­course with the moth­er around the date of the con­cep­tion.

¹The hus­band must file the chal­lenge with­in one year of learn­ing of the birth and of the fact that he is not the fath­er or that an­oth­er man had sexu­al in­ter­course with the moth­er around the date of the con­cep­tion, but in any event not later than five years after the birth.

²The child’s chal­lenge must be filed at the latest with­in one year of at­tain­ing the age of ma­jor­ity.²

³Once these time lim­its have ex­pired, a chal­lenge of pa­tern­ity is ad­miss­ible provided there is good cause for the delay.

¹ Where a child was born with­in 300 days of the dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­riage as a res­ult of death and the moth­er has since re­mar­ried, the second hus­band is deemed to be the fath­er.²

²If this pre­sump­tion is dis­proved, the first hus­band is deemed to be the fath­er.

¹If the hus­band died or lost ca­pa­city of judge­ment be­fore the time lim­it ex­pired, his fath­er or his moth­er may chal­lenge his pa­tern­ity.

²In this case the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing a chal­lenge by the hus­band ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

³The one-year time lim­it for bring­ing the claim be­gins at the earli­est on the date on which the fath­er or moth­er learns of the hus­band’s death or loss of ca­pa­city of judge­ment.

¹If the par­ents marry each oth­er, the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing chil­dren born in wed­lock ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to a child born pri­or to the mar­riage, provid­ing the pa­tern­ity of the hus­band is es­tab­lished by re­cog­ni­tion or court de­clar­a­tion.

²Re­cog­ni­tion may be chal­lenged:

1.

by the moth­er;

2.²

by the child or, after his or her death, by his or her is­sue if the spouses ceased liv­ing to­geth­er while the child was still a minor or if re­cog­ni­tion did not oc­cur un­til after the child's twelfth birth­day;

3.

by the hus­band’s com­mune of ori­gin or res­id­ence;

4.

by the hus­band.

³The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing chal­lenge of re­cog­ni­tion ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

¹Where the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship ex­ists only with the moth­er, the fath­er may re­cog­nise the child.

²Where the re­cog­nising per­son is a minor or sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship or if the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity has is­sued a re­lated or­der, re­cog­ni­tion re­quires the con­sent of his or her leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive.²

³Re­cog­ni­tion is ef­fected by means of a de­clar­a­tion made be­fore the civil re­gis­trar or by test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion or, if an ac­tion to de­clare pa­tern­ity is pending, by a de­clar­a­tion made to the court.

¹Re­cog­ni­tion may be chal­lenged be­fore the courts by any in­ter­ested party, namely the moth­er, the child or, after its death, its is­sue, and by the com­mune of ori­gin or dom­i­cile of the re­cog­nising per­son.

²The re­cog­nising per­son is en­titled to file a chal­lenge only if he or she re­cog­nised the child un­der threat of im­min­ent and sub­stan­tial risk to his or her own life, limb, repu­ta­tion or prop­erty or to those of a per­son close to him or her, or in the er­ro­neous be­lief that he was the fath­er.

³The chal­lenge is dir­ec­ted against the re­cog­nising per­son and the child, in­so­far as they them­selves are not the chal­len­ging per­sons.

¹The chal­len­ging per­son must prove that the re­cog­nising per­son is not the child’s fath­er.

²However, moth­er and child are only re­quired to prove this if the re­cog­nising per­son may sat­is­fy the court that he had sexu­al in­ter­course with the moth­er around the time of the child’s con­cep­tion.

¹The chal­lenge must be filed with­in one year of the date on which the claimant learned of the re­cog­ni­tion and the fact that the re­cog­nising per­son is not the fath­er, or that an­oth­er man had sexu­al in­ter­course with the moth­er around the time of the con­cep­tion, or on which he or she learned of his or her er­ror or on which the threat ceased, but in any event with­in five years of the re­cog­ni­tion.

²In all cases, the child may file the chal­lenge at any time pri­or to the elapse of one year after at­tain­ing the age of ma­jor­ity.²

³Once these time lim­its have ex­pired, a chal­lenge of re­cog­ni­tion is ad­miss­ible provided there is good cause for the delay.

¹Both moth­er and child are en­titled to bring an ac­tion to de­clare the ex­ist­ence of the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship between the child and the fath­er.

²The ac­tion is brought against the fath­er or, if he has died, in or­der of pri­or­ity against his is­sue, par­ents or sib­lings or, where none ex­ist, against the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of his last dom­i­cile.

³If the fath­er has died, the court must in­form his wife that the ac­tion has been brought so that she may safe­guard her in­terests.

¹If the de­fend­ant had sexu­al in­ter­course with the moth­er dur­ing the peri­od between the 300^th day and the 180^th day be­fore the child’s birth, his pa­tern­ity is pre­sumed.

²Pa­tern­ity is also pre­sumed even if the child was con­ceived pri­or to the 300^th day or after the 180^th day pri­or to birth provided the de­fend­ant had sexu­al in­ter­course with the moth­er dur­ing the peri­od in which the child was con­ceived.

³There is no such pre­sump­tion if the de­fend­ant shows that his pa­tern­ity is either im­possible or less prob­able than that of an­oth­er man.

¹The ac­tion is ad­miss­ible both be­fore and after the birth but must be brought:

1.

by the moth­er with­in one year of the birth;

2.²

by the child at any time pri­or to the elapse of one year after at­tain­ing the age of ma­jor­ity.

²If a par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship already ex­ists with an­oth­er man, the ac­tion may in any event be brought with­in one year of the date on which said re­la­tion­ship is an­nulled.

³Once these time lim­its have ex­pired, an ac­tion for de­term­in­a­tion of pa­tern­ity is ad­miss­ible provided there is good cause for the delay.

¹A minor child may be ad­op­ted if the per­sons wish­ing to ad­opt have raised and cared for the child for at least one year and provided the gen­er­al cir­cum­stances sug­gest that es­tab­lish­ing a par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship would be in the child’s best in­terests without be­ing un­fair for any oth­er chil­dren of the ad­opt­ive par­ents.

²Ad­op­tion is only pos­sible, if the per­sons wish­ing to ad­opt the child are able to provide for the child up to the child’s ma­jor­ity on the basis of their age and their per­son­al cir­cum­stances.

¹Spouses may ad­opt a child jointly if they have been in the same house­hold for at least three years and both are at least 28 years old.

²Ex­cep­tions from the min­im­um age may be made if this is ne­ces­sary for the wel­fare of the child. The spouses must jus­ti­fy the ex­cep­tion.

¹A per­son who is not mar­ried and does not live in a re­gistered part­ner­ship is per­mit­ted to ad­opt a child alone if he or she is at least 28 years old.

²A mar­ried per­son who is at least 28 years old is per­mit­ted to ad­opt alone where the oth­er spouse per­man­ently lacks ca­pa­city of judge­ment or has been of un­known where­abouts for more than 2 years or if the spouses have been sep­ar­ated by court or­der for more than 3 years.

³A per­son liv­ing in a re­gistered part­ner­ship who is at least 28 years old is per­mit­ted to ad­opt a child alone if his or her re­gistered part­ner per­man­ently lacks ca­pa­city of judge­ment or has been of un­known where­abouts for more than 2 years.

⁴Ex­cep­tions from the min­im­um age may be made if this is ne­ces­sary for the wel­fare of the child. The per­son wish­ing to ad­opt must jus­ti­fy the ex­cep­tion.

¹A per­son is per­mit­ted to ad­opt the child of the per­son:

1.

to whom he or she is mar­ried;

2.

with whom he or she lives in a re­gistered part­ner­ship;

3.

with whom he or she co­hab­its.

²The couple must have been in the same house­hold for at least three years.

³Per­sons who co­hab­it are not per­mit­ted to be mar­ried or to be bound by a re­gistered part­ner­ship.

¹The age dif­fer­ence between the child and the per­sons wish­ing to ad­opt may not be less than 16 years and not more than 45 years.

²Ex­cep­tions may be made if this is ne­ces­sary for the wel­fare of the child. The per­son wish­ing to ad­opt must jus­ti­fy the ex­cep­tion.

¹If the child is cap­able of judge­ment, its con­sent is re­quired for the ad­op­tion.

²Where the child has a leg­al guard­i­an or a leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive, ad­op­tion re­quires the con­sent of the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity even if the child is cap­able of judge­ment.

¹Ad­op­tion re­quires the con­sent of the child’s fath­er and moth­er.

²Such con­sent must be giv­en by or­al or writ­ten de­clar­a­tion to the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity of the par­ents’ or child’s dom­i­cile or tem­por­ary res­id­ence and must be re­cor­ded.

³Such con­sent is val­id even if the per­sons wish­ing to ad­opt are not named or not yet de­term­ined.³

¹Con­sent to ad­op­tion may not be giv­en un­til at least six weeks after the birth of the child.

²It may be re­voked with­in six weeks of hav­ing been ac­cep­ted.

³Where con­sent, hav­ing been re­voked, is giv­en again, it is then fi­nal.

The con­sent of a par­ent may be dis­pensed with if the iden­tity of that par­ent is un­known, or if he or she has been of un­known where­abouts for some length of time, or per­man­ently lacks ca­pa­city of judge­ment.

¹Where the child is en­trus­ted to per­sons wish­ing to ad­opt with a view to sub­sequent ad­op­tion and the con­sent of one par­ent is not forth­com­ing, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity at the child’s dom­i­cile shall , at the re­quest of the leg­al guard­i­an or a leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive, an ad­op­tion agency or the per­sons wish­ing to ad­opt, de­cide wheth­er such con­sent can be dis­pensed with, as a rule be­fore the child is placed in care.²

²In all oth­er cases, the de­cision is made at the time of the ad­op­tion.

³...³

¹An adult may be ad­op­ted if:

1.

he or she is per­man­ently in need of help for phys­ic­al, men­tal or psy­cho­lo­gic­al reas­ons and the per­sons wish­ing to ad­opt have looked after him or her for at least one year;

2.

the per­sons wish­ing to ad­opt raised and cared for the per­son for at least one year while he or she was still a minor; or

3.

there are oth­er good reas­ons and he or she has lived in the same house­hold with the per­sons wish­ing to ad­opt for at least one year.

²In all oth­er re­spects, the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing ad­op­tion of minors ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis, with the ex­cep­tion of the pro­vi­sion on par­ent­al con­sent.

¹The ad­opt­ive child ac­quires the leg­al status of a child of the per­sons wish­ing to ad­opt.

²Pre­vi­ous par­ent-child re­la­tion­ships are ex­tin­guished.

³The child’s re­la­tion­ship with the par­ent who:

1.

is mar­ried to;

2.

lives in a re­gistered part­ner­ship with;

3.

co­hab­its with;

the ad­opt­ing per­son is not ex­tin­guished.

¹In the case of joint ad­op­tion and ad­op­tion by a single per­son, the minor may be giv­en a new first name if there are good reas­ons for do­ing so. Pri­or to this, the child is heard in per­son in an ap­pro­pri­ate man­ner by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity or by a third party ap­poin­ted for this pur­pose, un­less this is in­ad­vis­able due to the child's age or for oth­er good cause. If the child is at least twelve years of age, a change of name re­quires his or her con­sent.

²The name of the child is de­term­ined in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the leg­al ef­fects of the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship. These ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to the ad­op­tion of the child by the re­gistered part­ner of its moth­er or fath­er.

³The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may au­thor­ise an adult to be ad­op­ted to con­tin­ue us­ing his or her ex­ist­ing name if there are good reas­ons for do­ing so.

⁴The change of name of an adult to be ad­op­ted does not af­fect the nam­ing of per­sons whose name is de­rived from the pre­vi­ous name of the per­son to be ad­op­ted, un­less they ex­pressly agree to a change of name.

The cit­izen­ship of a minor is de­term­ined by pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the leg­al ef­fects of the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship.

¹Ad­op­tion is pro­nounced by the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity at the ad­opt­ive par­ents’ dom­i­cile.

²The ad­op­tion re­quire­ments must already be met when the ap­plic­a­tion is sub­mit­ted.²

³Once the ap­plic­a­tion has been sub­mit­ted, the death or loss of ca­pa­city of judge­ment of the per­son wish­ing to ad­opt does not pre­clude the ad­op­tion provided the oth­er re­quire­ments are still ful­filled.³

⁴If the child at­tains the age of ma­jor­ity after the ap­plic­a­tion for ad­op­tion has been sub­mit­ted, the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the ad­op­tion of minors con­tin­ue to ap­ply provided the re­quire­ments for ad­op­tion were pre­vi­ously ful­filled.⁴

⁵The ad­op­tion de­cision shall con­tain all the in­form­a­tion re­quired for entry in the civil re­gister re­lat­ing to the first name, sur­name and cit­izen­ship of the ad­op­ted per­son.⁵

¹An ap­plic­a­tion for ad­op­tion may not be up­held un­til all ma­ter­i­al cir­cum­stances have been thor­oughly in­vest­ig­ated, where ne­ces­sary in con­sulta­tion with the rel­ev­ant spe­cial­ists.

²In par­tic­u­lar, the in­vest­ig­a­tion must look in­to the char­ac­ter and health of the per­sons wish­ing to ad­opt and the child, their mu­tu­al re­la­tion­ship, their suit­ab­il­ity as par­ents, their fin­an­cial situ­ation, motives and fam­ily cir­cum­stances and the his­tory of the child care re­la­tion­ship.²

³...³

¹The child shall be heard in per­son in an ap­pro­pri­ate man­ner by the can­ton­al au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the ad­op­tion pro­ced­ure or by a third party ap­poin­ted for this pur­pose, un­less this is in­ad­vis­able due to the child's age or for oth­er good cause.

²Minutes shall be kept of the hear­ing.

³A child cap­able of judge­ment may ap­peal against a de­cision to re­fuse a hear­ing.

¹The can­ton­al au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the ad­op­tion pro­ced­ure shall or­der the child to be rep­res­en­ted and ap­point a per­son ex­per­i­enced in wel­fare and leg­al mat­ters as the child's deputy.

²If a child with the ca­pa­city to con­sent so re­quests, a rep­res­ent­at­ive must be ap­poin­ted.

³The child may chal­lenge the re­jec­tion of his or her re­quest by fil­ing an ob­jec­tion.

¹Where the per­sons wish­ing to ad­opt have is­sue of their own, the lat­ter’s at­ti­tude to the ad­op­tion must be taken in­to ac­count.

²Pri­or to the ad­op­tion of an adult, the at­ti­tude of fol­low­ing per­sons must also be taken in­to ac­count:

1.

the spouse or re­gistered part­ner of the per­son to be ad­op­ted;

2.

the bio­lo­gic­al par­ents of the per­son to be ad­op­ted

3.

the is­sue of the per­son to be ad­op­ted, un­less this is in­ad­vis­able due to their age or for oth­er good cause.

³These per­sons shall, if pos­sible, be no­ti­fied of the ad­op­tion de­cision.

¹The ad­op­ted child and the ad­opt­ive par­ents are en­titled to con­fid­en­ti­al­ity of ad­op­tion in­form­a­tion.

²Identi­fy­ing in­form­a­tion about the minor or his or her ad­opt­ive par­ents may only be dis­closed to the bio­lo­gic­al par­ents if the child is cap­able of judge­ment, and the ad­opt­ive par­ents and the child have con­sen­ted to dis­clos­ure.

³Identi­fy­ing in­form­a­tion about the adult child may be dis­closed to the bio­lo­gic­al par­ents and their dir­ect des­cend­ants if the child has con­sen­ted to dis­clos­ure.

¹The ad­opt­ive par­ents must in­form the child of his or her ad­op­tion when his or her age or ma­tur­ity per­mits.

²A minor is en­titled to in­form­a­tion about his or her bio­lo­gic­al par­ents, provided it is not pos­sible to draw con­clu­sions about their iden­tity. The child shall be giv­en identi­fy­ing in­form­a­tion only if he or she can show an in­terest worthy of pro­tec­tion.

³An adult child may at any time re­quest that the per­son­al de­tails of his or her bio­lo­gic­al par­ents and fur­ther in­form­a­tion about them be dis­closed to him or her. The adult child may also re­quest that in­form­a­tion about the dir­ect des­cend­ants of his or her bio­lo­gic­al par­ents be dis­closed to him or her if the des­cend­ants are of age and have con­sen­ted to the dis­clos­ure.

¹In­form­a­tion about the bio­lo­gic­al par­ents, their dir­ect des­cend­ants and the child may be ob­tained from the can­ton­al au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the ad­op­tion pro­ced­ure.

²The au­thor­ity shall in­form the per­son re­ferred to in the re­quest for in­form­a­tion about the re­quest and, where ne­ces­sary, ob­tain his or her con­sent to con­tact the per­son re­quest­ing in­form­a­tion. The au­thor­ity may del­eg­ate these tasks to a spe­cial­ised tra­cing ser­vice.

³If the per­son re­ferred to in the re­quest for in­form­a­tion re­fuses to make per­son­al con­tact, the au­thor­ity or the au­thor­ised tra­cing ser­vice shall in­form the per­son re­quest­ing in­form­a­tion and draw his or her at­ten­tion to the per­son­al rights of the per­son re­ferred to in the re­quest for in­form­a­tion.

⁴The can­tons shall des­ig­nate a body to provide ad­vice to the bio­lo­gic­al par­ents, their dir­ect des­cend­ants or the child on re­quest.

¹The ad­opt­ive par­ents and the bio­lo­gic­al par­ents may agree that the bio­lo­gic­al par­ents be en­titled to reas­on­able con­tact with the minor. This agree­ment and any amend­ments thereto shall be sub­mit­ted to the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity at the child’s place of res­id­ence for ap­prov­al. The child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity or a third party ap­poin­ted by it shall hear the child in per­son in an ap­pro­pri­ate man­ner be­fore the de­cision is taken, un­less this is in­ad­vis­able due to the child's age or for oth­er good cause. If the child is cap­able of judge­ment, its con­sent is re­quired for the agree­ment.

²If the best in­terests of the child are at risk or if there is dis­agree­ment about the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the agree­ment, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall de­cide.

³The child may re­fuse con­tact with its bio­lo­gic­al par­ents at any time. The ad­opt­ive par­ents may not pass on in­form­a­tion to the bio­lo­gic­al par­ents against the child’s will.

¹Where for no just cause con­sent has not been ob­tained, those per­sons whose con­sent is re­quired may bring an ac­tion to chal­lenge the ad­op­tion provid­ing this does not ser­i­ously im­pair the in­terests of the child.

²However, the par­ents are not en­titled to bring such ac­tion where they may ap­peal against the de­cision to the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court.

¹If the ad­op­tion dis­plays oth­er grave de­fects, it may be chal­lenged by any in­ter­ested party and in par­tic­u­lar by the com­mune of ori­gin or dom­i­cile.

²However, a chal­lenge is ex­cluded if the de­fect has been rec­ti­fied in the in­ter­im or if it relates solely to pro­ced­ur­al pro­vi­sions.

An ac­tion to chal­lenge the ad­op­tion must be brought with­in six months of dis­cov­er­ing the grounds for the chal­lenge and in any event with­in two years of the ad­op­tion.

¹The Con­fed­er­a­tion is re­spons­ible for su­per­vising child ad­op­tion agency activ­it­ies.

²Any per­son en­ga­ging in such activ­it­ies pro­fes­sion­ally or in con­nec­tion with his or her pro­fes­sion­al activ­it­ies re­quires an of­fi­cial li­cence; this does not ap­ply to agency ser­vices rendered by the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity.²

³The Fed­er­al Coun­cil en­acts the im­ple­ment­ing reg­u­la­tions and de­term­ines the man­ner in which the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for pla­cing chil­dren in foster care with a view to sub­sequent ad­op­tion are to be in­volved in as­sess­ing ful­fil­ment of the re­quire­ments for ap­prov­al of ad­op­tion and in car­ry­ing out the ne­ces­sary su­per­vi­sion.

⁴...³

¹Where the par­ents are mar­ried to each oth­er but bear dif­fer­ent sur­names, the child takes the sur­name that the par­ents de­cided would be giv­en to their chil­dren when they mar­ried.

²With­in one year of the birth of their first child, the par­ents may re­quest that the child take the sur­name of the oth­er par­ent.

³If the par­ents bear a joint fam­ily name, the child takes that name.

¹If one par­ent has par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, the child takes that par­ent's sur­name be­fore mar­riage. If the par­ents share par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, they de­cide which of their sur­names be­fore mar­riage their chil­dren should take.

²If joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity is es­tab­lished after the birth of the first child, either par­ent may with­in a year of its es­tab­lish­ment de­clare be­fore the civil re­gis­trar that the child should take the oth­er par­ent's name be­fore mar­riage. This de­clar­a­tion ap­plies to all com­mon chil­dren, re­gard­less of who is giv­en par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity.

³If neither par­ent has par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, the child takes the moth­er's name be­fore mar­riage.

⁴A change in the al­loc­a­tion of par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity has no ef­fect on names. The pro­vi­sions on chan­ging names are re­served.

If the child has at­tained the age of twelve, his or her sur­name may only be changed if he or she con­sents.

¹The child ac­quires the can­ton­al and com­mun­al cit­izen­ship of the par­ent whose sur­name the child bears.

²Where a child ac­quires the sur­name of the oth­er par­ent while still a minor, the child ac­quires the can­ton­al and com­mun­al cit­izen­ship of that par­ent.

Par­ents and chil­dren owe each oth­er such sup­port, con­sid­er­a­tion and re­spect as the good of the fam­ily com­munity re­quires.

¹Par­ents not gran­ted par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity or whose chil­dren are not res­id­ent with them are en­titled to reas­on­able con­tact with their minor chil­dren, and their chil­dren are en­titled to con­tact with them.²

²The child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity may re­mind par­ents, foster par­ents or the child of their du­ties and is­sue them with in­struc­tions where the ex­er­cise or fail­ure to ex­er­cise con­tact en­ti­tle­ments is det­ri­ment­al to the child or where such re­mind­er or dir­ec­tion is re­quired for some oth­er reas­on.

³Con­tact en­ti­tle­ments must be stip­u­lated if either the fath­er or the moth­er so re­quests.

¹The fath­er and the moth­er must re­frain from any con­duct that im­pairs the child’s re­la­tion­ship with the oth­er par­ent or makes the task of the per­son with cus­tody more dif­fi­cult.²

²Where con­tact with the child is not in its best in­terests, or the par­ents breach their du­ties in the course of such con­tact or have not cared for the child to any mean­ing­ful de­gree, or oth­er good cause ex­ists, the par­ents’ right of con­tact with the child may be re­fused or with­drawn.

³Where the par­ents have con­sen­ted to the ad­op­tion of their child or their con­sent may be dis­pensed with, their right of con­tact with the child is ex­tin­guished as soon as the child is placed in foster care with a view to fu­ture ad­op­tion.

¹In ex­traordin­ary cir­cum­stances, a right of con­tact with the child may also be gran­ted to oth­er per­sons and in par­tic­u­lar to re­l­at­ives, to the ex­tent this serves the child’s best in­terests.

²The re­stric­tions on par­ents’ vis­it­ing rights ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

¹Re­spons­ib­il­ity for or­ders reg­u­lat­ing rights of con­tact with the child lies with the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity at the child’s dom­i­cile and with that of his or her place of tem­por­ary res­id­ence, in­so­far as the lat­ter has taken or is tak­ing child pro­tec­tion meas­ures.

²If the court reg­u­lates par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, res­id­ence or the child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions on the di­vorce and pro­tec­tion of the mar­it­al uni­on, it shall also reg­u­late con­tact.²

³Where no or­ders have yet been is­sued reg­u­lat­ing the fath­er’s and moth­er’s con­tact en­ti­tle­ments, no con­tact may be had against the will of the per­son gran­ted par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity or with whom the child resides.

¹Par­ents who do not ex­er­cise par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity should be in­formed of spe­cial events in the child’s life and con­sul­ted be­fore im­port­ant de­cisions af­fect­ing its de­vel­op­ment are taken.

²They are en­titled to ob­tain in­form­a­tion con­cern­ing the child’s con­di­tion and de­vel­op­ment from third parties in­volved in its care, such as teach­ers and doc­tors, in the same man­ner as the per­son with par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity.

³The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing re­spons­ib­il­ity for and lim­it­a­tions on con­tact with the child ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

¹Main­ten­ance is provided by caring for and rais­ing the child and in the form of mon­et­ary pay­ments.³

²The par­ents must, each ac­cord­ing to their own abil­it­ies, provide for the child’s main­ten­ance, in­clud­ing the costs of caring for and rais­ing the child, his or her edu­ca­tion and meas­ures taken for his or her pro­tec­tion.⁴

³The par­ents are re­leased from their duty of main­ten­ance to the ex­tent that the child may reas­on­ably be ex­pec­ted to meet the costs there­of from his or her own earn­ings or oth­er re­sources.

¹The duty of main­ten­ance to­wards a minor shall take pre­ced­ence over oth­er main­ten­ance du­ties un­der fam­ily law.

²In jus­ti­fied cases, the court may dis­reg­ard this rule, in par­tic­u­lar in or­der to pre­vent any dis­ad­vant­age to a child en­titled to main­ten­ance who is of age.

¹The par­ents’ duty of main­ten­ance lasts un­til the child at­tains the age of ma­jor­ity.²

²If at that junc­ture the child has not yet had a suit­able edu­ca­tion, the par­ents must pay for his or her main­ten­ance, to the ex­tent con­scion­able in the over­all cir­cum­stances, un­til such time as the child can com­plete a suit­able edu­ca­tion with­in the cus­tom­ary times­cale.³

¹For the dur­a­tion of their mar­riage, the par­ents bear the costs of main­ten­ance in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of mar­it­al law.

²Each spouse must give the oth­er all reas­on­able as­sist­ance in dis­char­ging the duty to main­tain chil­dren born pri­or to the mar­riage.

¹The child is en­titled to sue the fath­er or the moth­er or both for main­ten­ance in fu­ture and for one year pri­or to the bring­ing of such ac­tion.

^2–3...³

¹The child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion should cor­res­pond to the child’s needs and to the par­ents’ fin­an­cial cir­cum­stances and re­sources; the child’s as­sets and in­come must be taken in­to ac­count.

²The child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion also serves to en­sure that the child is cared for by the par­ents or by third parties.

³The child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion is pay­able in ad­vance on the dates stip­u­lated by the court.

¹Fam­ily al­low­ance cred­its paid to the par­ent re­quired to pay main­ten­ance must be paid in ad­di­tion to the main­ten­ance.

²Un­less the court rules oth­er­wise, any child al­low­ance, so­cial se­cur­ity chil­dren’s sup­ple­ment and sim­il­ar child sup­port be­ne­fits to which the par­ent sub­ject to the duty of main­ten­ance is en­titled must be paid in ad­di­tion to the child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion.

³Where as a res­ult of old age or in­valid­ity the par­ent sub­ject to the duty of main­ten­ance sub­sequently re­ceives so­cial se­cur­ity, chil­dren’s sup­ple­ments or sim­il­ar child sup­port be­ne­fits which re­place his or her em­ploy­ment in­come, he or she must pay said be­ne­fits to the child; by op­er­a­tion of law, his or her ex­ist­ing child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion is auto­mat­ic­ally re­duced by the amount of such new be­ne­fits.

¹The court may or­der that the child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion be auto­mat­ic­ally in­creased or de­creased in the event of spe­cified changes in the child’s needs, the par­ents’ fin­an­cial re­sources or the cost of liv­ing.

²If cir­cum­stances change con­sid­er­ably, at the re­quest of one par­ent or the child the court will set a new level of child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion or re­voke it en­tirely.

³Should the child have un­fore­seen, ex­traordin­ary needs the court may or­der the par­ents to make a spe­cial fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tion.³

¹If it was pre­vi­ously es­tab­lished in an ap­proved main­ten­ance agree­ment or a de­cision that no main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion could be set to provide due main­ten­ance for the child, and should the cir­cum­stances of the par­ent li­able to pay main­ten­ance have since im­proved sub­stan­tially, the child is en­titled to claim pay­ments that were not met by this par­ent dur­ing the pre­vi­ous five years in which pay­ments were owed to provide due main­ten­ance.

²This claim must be brought with­in one year of it be­ing known that the cir­cum­stances have im­proved sub­stan­tially.

³This claim passes with all rights to the oth­er par­ent or to the state au­thor­ity in as far as this par­ent or the state au­thor­ity has met the miss­ing share of the due main­ten­ance.

¹Main­ten­ance agree­ments are bind­ing on the child only once they have been ap­proved by the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity.

²Child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tions stip­u­lated in such agree­ments may be mod­i­fied, provid­ing such changes have not been ex­cluded with the ap­prov­al of the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity.

³If the agree­ment is con­cluded in court pro­ceed­ings, such ap­prov­al must be giv­en by the court.

Where main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tions are set in a main­ten­ance agree­ment, the agree­ment must spe­cify:

a.

the in­come and as­sets of each par­ent and each child from which the set amount is cal­cu­lated;

b.

the amount set for each child;

c.

the amount re­quired to cov­er any short­fall in the due main­ten­ance of each child;

d.

if and to what ex­tent the main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tions will be ad­jus­ted to re­flect changes in liv­ing costs.

¹Full and fi­nal set­tle­ment of the child’s main­ten­ance en­ti­tle­ment may be agreed if it is in the child’s best in­terests.

²The set­tle­ment agree­ment be­comes bind­ing on the child only:

1.

once the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity or, in the case of an agree­ment reached dur­ing court pro­ceed­ings, the court has ap­proved it, and

2.

once the set­tle­ment amount has been paid in­to the ac­count des­ig­nated in the ap­prov­al.

¹The right to child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tions is that of the child and, so long as he or she is a minor, is ful­filled by pay­ment to the child's leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive or to the per­son with whom the child resides, un­less the court de­cides oth­er­wise.²

²However, where the state au­thor­ity as­sumes the cost of main­tain­ing the child, such claim and all at­tend­ant rights pass to the state au­thor­ity.

¹If a fath­er or moth­er does not ful­fil his or her ob­lig­a­tion to provide main­ten­ance, a spe­cial­ist of­fice des­ig­nated by can­ton­al law shall, on ap­plic­a­tion, help the child and the oth­er par­ent to en­force the main­ten­ance claim ap­pro­pri­ately and free of charge.

²The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the terms of en­force­ment as­sist­ance.

If the par­ents neg­lect to take due care of the child, the court may or­der their debt­ors to make pay­ment in whole or in part to the child’s leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive.

If the par­ents are per­sist­ently neg­lect­ful in their duty of main­ten­ance, or if there are grounds to sus­pect that they are pre­par­ing to ab­scond or are dis­sip­at­ing or con­ceal­ing their as­sets, the court may or­der them to fur­nish ap­pro­pri­ate se­cur­ity for fu­ture child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tions.

¹Sub­ject to the duty of re­l­at­ives to provide sup­port, pub­lic law de­term­ines who must bear the costs of main­ten­ance if neither the par­ents nor the child may de­fray them.

²Pub­lic law also gov­erns the pro­vi­sion of ad­vances to main­tain the child if the par­ents fail to ful­fil their duty of main­ten­ance.

¹Foster par­ents are en­titled to re­ceive an ap­pro­pri­ate fos­ter­ing al­low­ance un­less oth­er­wise agreed or clearly dic­tated by the cir­cum­stances.

²Where chil­dren are fostered by close re­l­at­ives or with a view to sub­sequent ad­op­tion there is a pre­sump­tion that no re­mu­ner­a­tion is due.

¹Up to one year after the birth at the latest, the moth­er may file a claim against the fath­er or his leg­al heirs for com­pens­a­tion:²

1.

in re­spect of the con­fine­ment costs;

2.

in re­spect of the costs of main­ten­ance for at least four weeks pri­or to the birth and at least eight weeks there­after;

3.

in re­spect of oth­er ex­penses rendered ne­ces­sary by the preg­nancy or con­fine­ment, in­clud­ing the ini­tial equip­ment for the child.

²On grounds of equity, the court may award par­tial or full com­pens­a­tion for such costs if the preg­nancy ends pre­ma­turely.

³Third-party pay­ments to which the moth­er is en­titled by law or by con­tract must be taken in­to con­sid­er­a­tion to the ex­tent jus­ti­fied in the cir­cum­stances.