¹ A spouse who has changed his or her sur­name on mar­riage re­tains that sur­name fol­low­ing di­vorce; he or she may at any time de­clare be­fore the civil re­gis­trar the wish to re­vert to the name by which he or she was known pri­or to the mar­riage.

¹ The pro­vi­sions of mar­it­al prop­erty law ap­ply to the di­vi­sion of mar­it­al prop­erty.

² Di­vorced spouses have no stat­utory rights of in­her­it­ance in re­la­tion to each oth­er.¹⁹⁹

³ Un­less there is an in­struc­tion to the con­trary, spouses may not raise any claims based on test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tions:

1.

after di­vorce;

2.

after the death of a spouse dur­ing di­vorce pro­ceed­ings that res­ults in the sur­viv­ing spouse los­ing his or her right to claim the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment.²⁰⁰

¹ If a spouse must re­main in the fam­ily home be­cause of the chil­dren or for oth­er com­pel­ling reas­ons, the court may trans­fer the rights and ob­lig­a­tions un­der the ten­ancy agree­ment to that spouse provided this is not in­equit­able for the oth­er.

² The pre­vi­ous ten­ant is jointly and sev­er­ally li­able for pay­ment of the rent up to the date on which the ten­ancy ends or may be ter­min­ated pur­su­ant to the ten­ancy agree­ment or by law, but for a max­im­um peri­od of two years; if an ac­tion is brought to re­cov­er rent due, he or she is en­titled to set off the amount paid in in­stal­ments equal to the amount of the monthly rent against any main­ten­ance pay­ments owed to the oth­er spouse.

³ If the home be­longs to the fam­ily of one of the spouses, the court may, on the same con­di­tions, grant the oth­er spouse a right of res­id­ence for a fixed term in re­turn for reas­on­able com­pens­a­tion or set-off against main­ten­ance pay­ments. Where new and com­pel­ling reas­ons so re­quire, such right of res­id­ence may be re­stric­ted or re­voked.

In the event of di­vorce, any oc­cu­pa­tion­al pen­sion as­sets ac­crued dur­ing the mar­riage up to the point at which di­vorce pro­ceed­ings com­mence are di­vided equit­ably.

¹ Ter­min­a­tion be­ne­fits in­clud­ing ves­ted be­ne­fits and early with­draw­als for pur­chas­ing own­er-oc­cu­pied prop­erty are di­vided equally.

² Para­graph 1 does not ap­ply to one-off con­tri­bu­tions from in­di­vidu­al prop­erty in ac­cord­ance with the law.

³ The ter­min­a­tion be­ne­fits to be di­vided are cal­cu­lated on the basis of Art­icles 15–17 and 22a or 22b of the Ves­ted Be­ne­fits Act of 17 Decem­ber 1993²⁰³.

¹ If, at the point at which di­vorce pro­ceed­ings com­mence, a spouse is draw­ing an in­valid­ity pen­sion pri­or to the stat­utory ref­er­ence age, the amount to which he or she would be en­titled un­der Art­icle 2 para­graph 1^ter of the Ves­ted Be­ne­fits Act of 17 Decem­ber 1993²⁰⁶ fol­low­ing can­cel­la­tion of the in­valid­ity pen­sion counts as the ter­min­a­tion be­ne­fits.

² The pro­vi­sions on the equit­able di­vi­sion of ter­min­a­tion be­ne­fits ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines in which cases the amount un­der para­graph 1 may not be ap­plied in the di­vi­sion be­cause there has been a re­duc­tion due to over-com­pens­a­tion.

¹ If, at the point at which di­vorce pro­ceed­ings com­mence, a spouse is draw­ing an in­valid­ity pen­sion after the stat­utory ref­er­ence age or draw­ing a re­tire­ment pen­sion, the court de­cides at its own dis­cre­tion how the pen­sion is to be di­vided. In do­ing so it primar­ily takes in­to ac­count the dur­a­tion of the mar­riage and the pen­sion re­quire­ments of each spouse.

² The share of the pen­sion awar­ded to the spouse en­titled thereto is con­ver­ted in­to a life-long pen­sion. This is paid to the en­titled spouse by the li­able spouse’s oc­cu­pa­tion­al pen­sion fund or is trans­ferred to the en­titled spouse’s own oc­cu­pa­tion­al pen­sion fund.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates:

1.

the ac­tu­ar­ial con­ver­sion of the share of the pen­sion in­to a life-long pen­sion;

2.

the pro­ced­ure in cases in which the re­tire­ment be­ne­fits are post­poned or the in­valid­ity pen­sion is re­duced due to over-com­pens­a­tion.

¹ The spouses may, in an agree­ment on the con­sequences of the di­vorce, agree not to di­vide the as­sets equally or not to di­vide them at all if there are suf­fi­cient re­tire­ment pen­sion and in­valid­ity pen­sion funds oth­er­wise.

² The court may award the en­titled spouse less than half of the ter­min­a­tion be­ne­fits or rule that they should not be di­vided if good cause ex­ists. Good cause ex­ists above all when equal di­vi­sion would be un­reas­on­able:

1.

in view of the di­vi­sion of mar­it­al prop­erty or the eco­nom­ic cir­cum­stances fol­low­ing di­vorce;

2.

in view of the pen­sion re­quire­ments, in par­tic­u­lar with re­gard to the dif­fer­ence in age between the spouses.

³ The court may award the en­titled spouse more than half of the ter­min­a­tion be­ne­fits if he or she cares for joint chil­dren fol­low­ing the di­vorce and the li­able spouse con­tin­ues to have suf­fi­cient re­tire­ment and in­valid­ity pen­sion as­sets.

¹ The spouses’ mu­tu­al en­ti­tle­ments to ter­min­a­tion be­ne­fits or a share of a pen­sion are off­set. The pen­sion en­ti­tle­ment is off­set be­fore the share of the pen­sion awar­ded to the en­titled spouse is con­ver­ted in­to a life-long pen­sion.

² Ter­min­a­tion be­ne­fits may only be off­set against a share of a pen­sion if the spouses and the oc­cu­pa­tion­al pen­sion in­sti­tu­tions agree.

If, hav­ing con­sidered the pen­sion re­quire­ments of both spouses, an equit­able di­vi­sion of oc­cu­pa­tion­al pen­sion as­sets is un­reas­on­able, the li­able spouse shall owe the en­titled spouse a lump sum pay­ment.

¹ If the equit­able di­vi­sion of pen­sion fund as­sets is not pos­sible, the li­able spouse shall owe the en­titled spouse ad­equate com­pens­a­tion in the form of a lump sum pay­ment or as a pen­sion.

² A Swiss judg­ment may be amended at the re­quest of the li­able spouse if pen­sion en­ti­tle­ments ex­ist­ing abroad have been off­set by ad­equate com­pens­a­tion pur­su­ant to para­graph 1 and such pen­sion en­ti­tle­ments are then di­vided up in a for­eign de­cision that is bind­ing on the for­eign party li­able to pay pen­sion con­tri­bu­tions.

¹ If a spouse can­not reas­on­ably be ex­pec­ted to provide for his or her own main­ten­ance, in­clud­ing an ap­pro­pri­ate level of re­tire­ment pro­vi­sion, the oth­er spouse must pay a suit­able con­tri­bu­tion.

² In de­cid­ing wheth­er such a con­tri­bu­tion is to be made and, if so, in what amount and for how long, the fol­low­ing factors in par­tic­u­lar must be con­sidered:

1.

the di­vi­sion of du­ties dur­ing the mar­riage;

2.

the dur­a­tion of the mar­riage;

3.

the stand­ard of liv­ing dur­ing the mar­riage;

4.

the age and health of the spouses;

5.

the in­come and as­sets of the spouses;

6.

the ex­tent and dur­a­tion of child care still re­quired of the spouses;

7.

the vo­ca­tion­al train­ing and ca­reer pro­spects of the spouses and the likely cost of re­in­teg­ra­tion in­to work­ing life;

8.

ex­pect­ancy of fed­er­al old age and sur­viv­or’s in­sur­ance be­ne­fits and of oc­cu­pa­tion­al or oth­er private or state pen­sions, in­clud­ing the ex­pec­ted pro­ceeds of any di­vi­sion of with­draw­al be­ne­fits.

³ Ex­cep­tion­ally, a main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion may be denied or re­duced if it would clearly be in­equit­able, par­tic­u­larly be­cause the spouse oth­er­wise en­titled to re­ceive such con­tri­bu­tion:

1.

has grossly neg­lected his or her duty to con­trib­ute to the main­ten­ance of the fam­ily;

2.

has wil­fully brought about his or her own in­di­gence;

3.

has com­mit­ted a ser­i­ous crim­in­al of­fence against the oth­er spouse or a per­son close to him or her.

¹ The court shall fix an amount to be paid peri­od­ic­ally by way of main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion and set the date on which the duty of main­ten­ance com­mences.

² Where jus­ti­fied in spe­cif­ic cir­cum­stances, a lump sum set­tle­ment may be ordered in­stead of reg­u­lar pay­ments.

³ The court may at­tach con­di­tions to the main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion.

The spouses may wholly or in part ex­clude any al­ter­a­tion of the reg­u­lar main­ten­ance pay­ments stip­u­lated in the agree­ment.

The court may dir­ect that the main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion will auto­mat­ic­ally in­crease or de­crease de­pend­ing on spe­cified changes in the cost of liv­ing.

¹ In the event of a sub­stan­tial and en­dur­ing change in cir­cum­stances, the peri­od­ic main­ten­ance pay­ments may be re­duced, can­celled or sus­pen­ded for a cer­tain time; an im­prove­ment in the cir­cum­stances of the party en­titled to main­ten­ance may be taken in­to ac­count only if the pay­ments stip­u­lated in the di­vorce de­cree provided suf­fi­cient main­ten­ance.

² The party en­titled to main­ten­ance may re­quest that the pay­ments be ad­jus­ted in line with fu­ture in­fla­tion if the in­come of the oth­er party has in­creased un­ex­pec­tedly since the di­vorce.

³ With­in five years of the di­vorce, the party en­titled to main­ten­ance may re­quest that pay­ments be ordered or in­creased provided the di­vorce de­cree states that it was not pos­sible at that time to or­der suf­fi­cient main­ten­ance pay­ments and provided the eco­nom­ic cir­cum­stances of the party ob­liged to pay main­ten­ance have since im­proved.

¹ The duty to pay main­ten­ance ex­pires on the death of either the re­ceiv­ing party or the pay­ing party.

² Un­less oth­er­wise agreed, it like­wise ex­pires on the re­mar­riage of the party en­titled to re­ceive main­ten­ance.

¹ Where the li­able party fails to pay main­ten­ance, an of­fi­cial agency des­ig­nated by can­ton­al law shall on re­quest, in an ap­pro­pri­ate way and usu­ally without charge, as­sist the party en­titled to main­ten­ance to en­force his or her claims.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the terms of en­force­ment as­sist­ance.

¹ Pub­lic law may provide for ad­vance pay­ments to be made should the li­able per­son fail to make the ne­ces­sary main­ten­ance pay­ments.

² If the state au­thor­ity makes main­ten­ance pay­ments to the en­titled per­son, the main­ten­ance en­ti­tle­ment with all rights is as­signed to the state au­thor­ity.

¹ If the party ob­liged to pay main­ten­ance fails to do so, the court may or­der his debt­ors to make pay­ment in whole or in part to the party en­titled to main­ten­ance.

² If the party ob­liged to pay main­ten­ance per­sist­ently fails to do so, or if there are grounds to sus­pect that said party is pre­par­ing to ab­scond or is dis­sip­at­ing or con­ceal­ing his as­sets, the court may or­der him to post ap­pro­pri­ate se­cur­ity for fu­ture main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tions.

¹ The court reg­u­lates par­ent­al rights and ob­lig­a­tions in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions on the leg­al ef­fects of the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship. In par­tic­u­lar it reg­u­lates:

1.

par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity;

2.

res­id­ence;

3.

con­tact (Art. 273) or the shar­ing of par­ent­ing du­ties; and

4.

child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tions.

² It shall con­sider all cir­cum­stances im­port­ant to the child's best in­terests. It shall take ac­count of a joint pro­pos­al by the par­ents and, if feas­ible, the opin­ion of the child.

³ It may or­der that the child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion con­tin­ue to be paid after the child reaches the age of ma­jor­ity.

¹ At the re­quest of either par­ent, the child or the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity, new ar­range­ments for par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity shall be made by the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity provided this is in the child’s best in­terests due to a sub­stan­tial change in cir­cum­stances.

² The re­quire­ments for the modi­fic­a­tion of oth­er par­ent­al rights and -ob­lig­a­tions are gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions on the ef­fects of the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship.²¹⁶

³ If the par­ents agree, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity re­as­sesses par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, res­id­ence and ap­proves a child sup­port agree­ment. In the oth­er cases, the court com­pet­ent to modi­fy the di­vorce de­cree de­cides.²¹⁷

⁴ If the court is re­quired to de­cide on the modi­fic­a­tion of par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, res­id­ence or the child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion for a minor child, it shall if ne­ces­sary also re­as­sess con­tact or shar­ing of par­ent­ing du­ties; in the oth­er cases, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall de­cide on the modi­fic­a­tion of con­tact or shar­ing of par­ent­ing du­ties.²¹⁸

Re­pealed

¹ The wed­ding ce­re­mony binds the spouses in mar­it­al uni­on.

² They mu­tu­ally un­der­take to strive to safe­guard the in­terests of the mar­it­al uni­on and to care jointly for the chil­dren.

³ They owe each oth­er loy­alty and sup­port.

¹ Each spouse re­tains his or her sur­name.

² However, the pro­spect­ive spouses may de­clare to the civil re­gis­trar that they wish bear one of their sur­names as the fam­ily sur­name.²²²

³ If the pro­spect­ive spouses re­tain their sur­names, they de­cide which of the sur­names their chil­dren will bear. In jus­ti­fied cases, the civil re­gis­trar may re­lieve the pro­spect­ive spouses of this ob­lig­a­tion.²²³

Each spouse re­tains his or her can­ton­al and com­mun­al cit­izen­ship.

The spouses jointly de­cide where to es­tab­lish the mar­it­al home.

¹ The spouses jointly provide for the prop­er main­ten­ance of the fam­ily, each ac­cord­ing to his or her abil­ity.

² They agree on the con­tri­bu­tions each of them will make, not­ably by provid­ing money, look­ing after the house­hold, caring for the chil­dren or sup­port­ing the oth­er’s ca­reer or busi­ness.

³ In so do­ing they take due ac­count of the needs of the mar­it­al uni­on and of their own per­son­al cir­cum­stances.

¹ A spouse who looks after the house­hold, cares for the chil­dren or sup­ports the ca­reer or busi­ness of the oth­er spouse is en­titled to re­ceive from the lat­ter a reas­on­able al­low­ance for his or her own per­son­al use.

² When de­term­in­ing said al­low­ance, ac­count must be taken of the per­son­al re­sources of the re­ceiv­ing spouse and the need to provide con­scien­tiously for the fam­ily, ca­reer and busi­ness.

¹ Where the con­tri­bu­tion made by one spouse to the oth­er’s ca­reer or busi­ness is sig­ni­fic­antly great­er than re­quired in the light of the lat­ter’s con­tri­bu­tion to the main­ten­ance of the fam­ily, he or she is en­titled to reas­on­able com­pens­a­tion.

² The same ap­plies if a spouse has con­trib­uted sig­ni­fic­antly more of his or her own in­come or as­sets to the main­ten­ance of the fam­ily than he or she was ob­liged to con­trib­ute.

³ However, a spouse is not en­titled to com­pens­a­tion if such ex­traordin­ary con­tri­bu­tion was made un­der a work, loan or part­ner­ship agree­ment or on the basis of some oth­er leg­al re­la­tion­ship.

¹ While liv­ing to­geth­er un­der the same roof, both spouses rep­res­ent the mar­it­al uni­on with re­gard to the day-to-day needs of the fam­ily.

² A spouse may rep­res­ent the mar­it­al uni­on with re­gard to the oth­er needs of the fam­ily only if:

1.

au­thor­ised so to do by the oth­er spouse or by court or­der;

2.

the in­terests of the mar­it­al uni­on brook no delay and the oth­er spouse is un­able to con­sent due to ill­ness, ab­sence or oth­er sim­il­ar reas­ons.

³ Each spouse is per­son­ally li­able for his or her own ac­tions and, to the ex­tent that these do not ex­ceed his or her powers of rep­res­ent­a­tion in a man­ner ap­par­ent to third parties, also renders the oth­er spouse jointly and sev­er­ally li­able for such ac­tions.

In the choice and pur­suit of his or her ca­reer or busi­ness, each spouse must have due re­gard to the oth­er and to the wel­fare of the mar­it­al uni­on.

Each spouse may enter in­to trans­ac­tions with the oth­er or with third parties un­less the law provides oth­er­wise.

¹ A spouse may ter­min­ate a ten­ancy agree­ment, ali­en­ate the fam­ily home or lim­it the rights in re­spect of the fam­ily home by oth­er trans­ac­tions only with the ex­press con­sent of the oth­er.

² If the spouse can­not ob­tain such con­sent or it is with­held without good cause, he or she may pe­ti­tion the court.

¹ Each spouse has the right to de­mand in­form­a­tion from the oth­er con­cern­ing his or her in­come, as­sets and debts.

² At the re­quest of one spouse, the court may or­der the oth­er spouse or a third party to fur­nish the in­form­a­tion re­quired and to pro­duce the ne­ces­sary doc­u­ments.

³ This does not ap­ply to any in­form­a­tion held by law­yers, so­li­cit­ors, doc­tors, clergy and their aux­il­i­ary staff which is sub­ject to pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity.

The can­tons must en­sure that spouses ex­per­i­en­cing mar­it­al prob­lems may seek help in­di­vidu­ally or jointly from mar­riage guid­ance or fam­ily coun­selling agen­cies.

¹ If a spouse fails to ful­fil his or her du­ties to the fam­ily or if the spouses dis­agree on mat­ters of im­port­ance to the mar­it­al uni­on, they may ap­ply jointly or sep­ar­ately to the court for me­di­ation.

² The court re­minds the spouses of their du­ties and at­tempts to settle their dif­fer­ences; if the spouses con­sent, ex­perts may be con­sul­ted or they may be re­ferred to a mar­riage guid­ance or fam­ily coun­selling agency.

³ If ne­ces­sary, at the re­quest of one spouse the court will take the steps en­vis­aged by law. The pro­vi­sion gov­ern­ing the pro­tec­tion of the per­son from vi­ol­ence, threats or har­ass­ment ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.²²⁵

¹ At the re­quest of one spouse, the court de­term­ines the amounts to be paid for the main­ten­ance of the fam­ily.

² Like­wise, at the re­quest of one spouse, it de­term­ines the al­low­ance pay­able to the spouse who looks after the house­hold, cares for the chil­dren or sup­ports the oth­er’s ca­reer or busi­ness.

³ Pay­ments may be claimed for the fu­ture and for one year pre­ced­ing the re­quest.

¹ If a spouse ex­ceeds his or her power to rep­res­ent the mar­it­al uni­on or proves in­cap­able of ex­er­cising it, at the oth­er spouse’s re­quest the court may re­voke such power in whole or in part.

² The spouse mak­ing such re­quest may in­form third parties of the re­voc­a­tion only by com­mu­nic­a­tions in per­son.

³ The re­voc­a­tion is ef­fect­ive to­wards third parties act­ing in good faith only if it has been made pub­lic by or­der of the court.

A spouse is en­titled to sus­pend the joint house­hold for as long as his or her per­son­al­ity rights or fin­an­cial se­cur­ity or the wel­fare of the fam­ily are ser­i­ously en­dangered by liv­ing to­geth­er.

¹ If the sus­pen­sion of the joint house­hold is jus­ti­fied, at the re­quest of one spouse the court will:

1.²²⁶

de­term­ine the main­ten­ance paid to any chil­dren and the oth­er spouse;

2.

is­sue dir­ec­tions on the use of the home and the house­hold ef­fects;

3.

or­der a sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty where jus­ti­fied in the cir­cum­stances.

² A spouse may also make such re­quest if liv­ing to­geth­er is im­possible, in par­tic­u­lar be­cause the oth­er spouse re­fuses to do so without good cause.

³ If the spouses have minor chil­dren, the court must take the ne­ces­sary steps in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the leg­al ef­fects of the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship.²²⁷

The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing en­force­ment as­sist­ance and ad­vance pay­ments on di­vorce and con­sequent to the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship ap­ply.

If a spouse fails to ful­fil his or her duty to main­tain the fam­ily, the court may or­der his or her debt­ors to make pay­ment in full or in part to the oth­er spouse.

¹ To the ex­tent re­quired to en­sure the fam­ily’s fin­an­cial se­cur­ity or ful­fil­ment of a fin­an­cial ob­lig­a­tion arising from the mar­it­al uni­on, at the re­quest of one spouse the court may make the power to dis­pose of cer­tain as­sets con­di­tion­al on its con­sent.

² The court or­ders the ap­pro­pri­ate pro­tect­ive meas­ures.

³ If it pro­hib­its a spouse from dis­pos­ing of land it must have a note to this ef­fect re­cor­ded in the land re­gister.

¹ If there is a change in cir­cum­stances, at the re­quest of either spouse the court shall modi­fy the meas­ures or re­voke the same if they are no longer jus­ti­fied. The pro­vi­sions on a change of cir­cum­stances in di­vorce cases ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.²³²

² If the spouses re­sume liv­ing to­geth­er, the meas­ures ordered in con­nec­tion with liv­ing apart lapse, with the ex­cep­tion of the sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty and the child pro­tec­tion meas­ures.

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.

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

² The pro­spect­ive spouses or the spouses may choose, set aside or modi­fy their mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime only with­in the lim­its of the law.²³⁵

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

² Minors, or adults sub­ject to a deputy­ship that cov­ers the con­clu­sion of a mar­it­al agree­ment re­quire the con­sent of their leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive.²³⁶

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

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

² In 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.

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

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

² If 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.

¹ The re­quest is dir­ec­ted against both spouses.

² ...²³⁹

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

² By 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.

¹ The 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.

² If 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.

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

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

¹ Each 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.

² Such 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.

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

² In 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.

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

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

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

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

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

¹ With­in 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.

² If 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.

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

² However, 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.

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

² In 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.

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

² 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.

³ The spouses settle their debts to each oth­er.

¹ Where 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.

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

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

¹ The 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.

² Lump 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.

¹ The 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 ...²⁴¹

¹ Where 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.

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

³ If 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.

¹ The 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.

² A de­fi­cit is dis­reg­arded.

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

¹ An 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.

² The 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.

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

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

² Spe­cial 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.

¹ For 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.

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

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

² The claims are set off.

¹ A dif­fer­ent share of the sur­plus may be agreed by mar­it­al agree­ment.

² The share of the sur­plus al­loc­ated that ex­ceeds one half shall not be in­cluded when cal­cu­lat­ing the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ments of the sur­viv­ing spouse or re­gistered part­ner, his or her com­mon is­sue and the is­sue of those chil­dren.²⁴²

³ Such an agree­ment must not ad­versely af­fect the right to claim the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment held by chil­dren who are not the com­mon is­sue of the spouses or those of the is­sue of such chil­dren.²⁴³

¹ In the case of di­vorce, sep­ar­a­tion, an­nul­ment of mar­riage or sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty by court or­der, agree­ments vary­ing the stat­utory share of the sur­plus are val­id only if the mar­it­al prop­erty agree­ment ex­pressly so provides.

² This also ap­plies on the dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime by death when di­vorce pro­ceed­ings are pending if that res­ults in the sur­viv­ing spouse los­ing his or her right to claim the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment.²⁴⁴

¹ If 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.

² Un­less 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.

¹ To 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.

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

³ Where 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.

⁴ The 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.

¹ If 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.

² The 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.

³ Moreover, the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing claims in abate­ment un­der in­her­it­ance law ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.²⁴⁵

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

¹ The 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.

² The com­mon prop­erty be­longs to both spouses jointly.

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

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

² Rev­en­ue from in­di­vidu­al prop­erty be­comes com­mon prop­erty.

¹ By 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.

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

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

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

³ A spouse’s right to claim the stat­utory 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.

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

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

¹ Out­side 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.

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

³ The 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.

¹ Without 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.

² If the spouse is un­able to ob­tain con­sent or if it is with­held without good cause, he or she may pe­ti­tion the court.²⁴⁶

¹ In 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.

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

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

² If 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.

¹ For 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.

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

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

² However, 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.

¹ The 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.

² In 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.

³ When 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.

¹ Where 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.

² A 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.

¹ If 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.

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

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

⁴ Un­less there is an in­struc­tion to the con­trary in the mar­it­al agree­ment, agree­ments on a dif­fer­ent meth­od of di­vi­sion do not ap­ply on the death of a spouse when di­vorce pro­ceed­ings are pending that res­ults in the sur­viv­ing spouse los­ing his or her right to claim the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment.²⁴⁷

¹ On 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.

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

³ Agree­ments 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.

¹ If 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.

² Where 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.

³ If 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.

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

² If 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.

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

² However, 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.

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

² It is formed between child and the oth­er par­ent by vir­tue of the lat­ter be­ing mar­ried to the moth­er, or, if provided for by law, by re­cog­ni­tion or by court de­clar­a­tion.²⁵¹

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

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

² If 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.

³ If 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.

¹ Where the moth­er is mar­ried to a wo­man at the time of the birth and if the child has been con­ceived by a sperm dona­tion in ac­cord­ance with the Re­pro­duct­ive Medi­cine Act of 18 Decem­ber 1998²⁵⁸, the moth­er’s wife is deemed to be the oth­er par­ent.

² If the moth­er’s wife dies or is de­clared pre­sumed dead, she is deemed to have been a par­ent if in­sem­in­a­tion took place be­fore her death or be­fore the time of the life-threat­en­ing event or the last sign of life.

¹ The pre­sump­tion of pa­tern­ity may be chal­lenged in court:

1.

by the hus­band;

2.²⁶¹

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

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

³ The 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 1998²⁶².²⁶³

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

² The 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.²⁶⁵

¹ If 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.

² However, 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.

¹ The 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.

² The child’s chal­lenge must be filed at the latest with­in one year of at­tain­ing the age of ma­jor­ity.²⁶⁸

³ Once 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.²⁷⁰

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

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

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

³ The 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.

¹ If 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.

² Re­cog­ni­tion may be chal­lenged:

1.

by the moth­er;

2.²⁷³

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.

³ The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing chal­lenge of re­cog­ni­tion ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

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

² Where 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.²⁷⁶

³ Re­cog­ni­tion 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.

¹ Re­cog­ni­tion 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.

² The 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.

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

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

² However, 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.

¹ The 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.

² In all cases, the child may file the chal­lenge at any time pri­or to the elapse of one year after at­tain­ing the age of ma­jor­ity.²⁸⁰

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

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

² The 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.

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

¹ If 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.

² Pa­tern­ity 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.

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

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

1.

by the moth­er with­in one year of the birth;

2.²⁸⁴

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

² If 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.

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

¹ A 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.

² Ad­op­tion 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.

¹ Spouses 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.

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

¹ A 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.

² A 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.

³ A 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.

⁴ Ex­cep­tions 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.

¹ A 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.

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

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

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

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

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

² Where 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.

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

² Such 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.

³ Such con­sent is val­id even if the per­sons wish­ing to ad­opt are not named or not yet de­term­ined.²⁹⁴

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

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

³ Where 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.

¹ Where 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.²⁹⁸

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

³ ...²⁹⁹

¹ An 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.

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

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

² Pre­vi­ous par­ent-child re­la­tion­ships are ex­tin­guished.

³ The 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.

¹ In 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.

² The 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.

³ The 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.

⁴ The 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 bypro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the leg­al ef­fects of the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship.

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

² The ad­op­tion re­quire­ments must already be met when the ap­plic­a­tion is sub­mit­ted.³⁰⁵

³ Once 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.³⁰⁶

⁴ If 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.³⁰⁷

⁵ The 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.³⁰⁸

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

² In 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.³¹⁰

³ ...³¹¹

¹ The 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.

² Minutes shall be kept of the hear­ing.

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

¹ The 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.

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

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

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

² Pri­or 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.

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

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

² Identi­fy­ing 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.

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

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

² A 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.

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

² The 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.

³ If 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.

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

¹ The 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.

² If 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.

³ The 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.

¹ Where 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.

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

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

² However, 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.

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

² Any 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.³²³

³ The 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 ...³²⁴