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.²³⁷

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 1998²⁴⁴, 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;

2.²⁴⁷

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 1998²⁴⁸.²⁴⁹

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.²⁵¹

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.²⁵⁴

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.²⁵⁶

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 mu­tatismutandis 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;

2.²⁵⁹

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.²⁶²

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.²⁶⁶

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;

2.²⁷⁰

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.²⁸⁰

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.²⁸⁴

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

³ ...²⁸⁵

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 by pro­vi­sions 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.²⁹¹

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.²⁹²

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.²⁹³

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.²⁹⁴

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.²⁹⁶

³ ...²⁹⁷

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.³⁰⁹

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 ...³¹⁰

¹ Where 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.

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

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

¹ If 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.

² If 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.

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

⁴ A 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.

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

² Where 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.

¹ Par­ents 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.³¹⁹

² The 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.

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

¹ The 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.³²¹

² Where 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.

³ Where 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.

¹ In 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.

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

¹ Re­spons­ib­il­ity 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.

² If 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.³²⁴

³ Where 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.

¹ Par­ents 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.

² They 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.

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

¹ Main­ten­ance is provided by caring for and rais­ing the child and in the form of mon­et­ary pay­ments.³²⁹

² The 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.³³⁰

³ The 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.

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

² In 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.

¹ The par­ents’ duty of main­ten­ance lasts un­til the child at­tains the age of ma­jor­ity.³³³

² If 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.³³⁴

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

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

¹ The 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 ...³³⁸

¹ The 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.

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

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

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

² Un­less 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.

³ Where 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.

¹ The 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.

² If 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.

³ Should the child have un­fore­seen, ex­traordin­ary needs the court may or­der the par­ents to make a spe­cial fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tion.³⁴⁴

¹ If 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.

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

³ This 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.

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

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

³ If 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.

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

² The 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.

¹ The 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.³⁵¹

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

¹ If 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.

² The 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.

¹ Sub­ject 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.

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

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

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

¹ Up to one year after the birth at the latest, the moth­er may file a claim against the fath­er or his leg­al heirs for com­pens­a­tion:³⁵⁸

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.

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

³ Third-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.

¹ Par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity serves the best in­terests of the child.

² Un­til such time as they at­tain the age of ma­jor­ity, chil­dren re­main the joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity of their fath­er and moth­er.

³ Par­ents who are minors or sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship may not ex­er­cise par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity. When the par­ents at­tain the age of ma­jor­ity, they are as­signed par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity. If the gen­er­al deputy­ship is re­voked, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall as­sign par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity in a man­ner ap­pro­pri­ate to the child's best in­terests.

¹ If the par­ents have joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity and one par­ent dies, the sur­viv­ing par­ent re­tains sole par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity.

² If a par­ent who has sole par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity dies, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall as­sign par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity to the sur­viv­ing par­ent or if a leg­al guard­i­an is ap­poin­ted for the child, to the per­son more suited to safe­guard­ing the child's best in­terests.

¹ In di­vorce pro­ceed­ings or pro­ceed­ings to pro­tect the mar­it­al uni­on, the court shall as­sign one par­ent sole par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity if this is ne­ces­sary to safe­guard the child's best in­terests.

² It may lim­it it­self to reg­u­lat­ing res­id­ence, con­tact or shar­ing of par­ent­ing du­ties if there is no pro­spect of the par­ents agree­ing on these mat­ters.

^2bis When reg­u­lat­ing res­id­ence, con­tact and the shar­ing of par­ent­ing du­ties it shall take ac­count of the right of the child to main­tain reg­u­lar per­son­al re­la­tion­ships with both par­ents.³⁶³

^2ter Where joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity is awar­ded, with re­spect to the child’s best in­terests, it shall con­sider the pos­sib­il­ity of the child resid­ing with both par­ents on an al­tern­at­ing basis, if this is re­ques­ted by one of the par­ents or by the child.³⁶⁴

³ It shall re­quest the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity to ap­point a leg­al guard­i­an for the child if neither the moth­er nor the fath­er can be ex­pec­ted to ac­cept par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity.

¹ If the par­ents are not mar­ried to each oth­er and if the fath­er re­cog­nises the child, or the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship is es­tab­lished by court judg­ment but joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity was not ordered at the time of the judg­ment, joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity is es­tab­lished based on a joint de­clar­a­tion by the par­ents.

² In the de­clar­a­tion, the par­ents con­firm that they:

1.

are pre­pared to ac­cept joint re­spons­ib­il­ity for the child; and

2.

have agreed on res­id­ence and con­tact or on the shar­ing of par­ent­ing du­ties and on the child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion for the child.

³ Be­fore mak­ing the de­clar­a­tion, the par­ents may seek ad­vice from the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity.

⁴ If the par­ents make the de­clar­a­tion at the same time as re­cog­nising pa­tern­ity, the de­clar­a­tion is made to the civil re­gis­trar. A sub­sequent de­clar­a­tion must be made to the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity at the child's dom­i­cile.

⁵ Un­less and un­til the de­clar­a­tion has been made, the moth­er has sole par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity.

¹ If a par­ent re­fuses to make a de­clar­a­tion on joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, the oth­er par­ent may re­quest the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity at the child's dom­i­cile to in­ter­vene.

² The child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall or­der joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, un­less the moth­er should re­tain sole par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity or sole par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity should be as­signed to the fath­er in or­der to safe­guard the child's best in­terests.

³ At the same time as de­cid­ing on par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall reg­u­late any oth­er mat­ters in dis­pute. An ac­tion for pay­ment of the main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion may be brought be­fore the com­pet­ent court; in such a case the court also de­cides on par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity and oth­er mat­ters re­lat­ing to the child.³⁶⁷

^3bis In its de­cision on res­id­ence, con­tact and the shar­ing of par­ent­ing du­ties, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall take ac­count of the right of the child to main­tain reg­u­lar per­son­al re­la­tion­ships with both par­ents.³⁶⁸

^3ter Where joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity is awar­ded, with re­spect to the child’s best in­terests, it shall con­sider the pos­sib­il­ity of the child resid­ing with both par­ents on an al­tern­at­ing basis, if this is re­ques­ted by one of the par­ents or by the child.³⁶⁹

⁴ If the moth­er is a minor or sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall as­sign par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity to the fath­er or ap­point a leg­al guard­i­an for the child, de­pend­ing on which meas­ure is more suit­able to safe­guard the child's best in­terests.

If the court up­holds a pa­tern­ity ac­tion, it shall or­der joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity un­less the moth­er re­tains sole par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity or sole par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity is as­signed to the fath­er in or­der to safe­guard the child's best in­terests.

¹ At the re­quest of either par­ent, the child or ex of­fi­cio, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall re­as­sign par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity if this is ne­ces­sary to safe­guard the child's best in­terests due to a sub­stan­tial change in cir­cum­stances.

² It may lim­it it­self to reg­u­lat­ing res­id­ence, con­tact or the shar­ing of par­ent­ing du­ties.

³ An ac­tion for a change to the main­ten­ance pay­ments may be brought to the com­pet­ent court; in such a case the court may make a new rul­ing on par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity and oth­er mat­ters re­lat­ing to the child.³⁷²

If the per­son who ad­opts the child co­hab­its with the child’s moth­er or fath­er, and there is a sub­stan­tial change in the cir­cum­stances, the pro­vi­sion on the change of cir­cum­stances ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis in the case of re­cog­ni­tion and judge­ment of pa­tern­ity.

Each spouse must give the oth­er reas­on­able sup­port in ex­er­cising par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity over the lat­ter’s chil­dren and must rep­res­ent the oth­er spouse as cir­cum­stances re­quire.

¹ If a child is placed in foster care with third parties, un­less the rel­ev­ant or­ders provide oth­er­wise, these third parties ex­er­cise par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity over the child in loco par­entis to the ex­tent re­quired for the prop­er ful­fil­ment of their du­ties.

² Foster par­ents must be con­sul­ted be­fore any im­port­ant de­cisions are taken re­gard­ing the child.

¹ The par­ents raise and care for a child with his or her best in­terests in mind and take all ne­ces­sary de­cisions un­less the child has ca­pa­city to act.

^1bis The par­ent who is tak­ing care of the child may de­cide alone if:

1.

the mat­ter is routine or ur­gent;

2.

the oth­er par­ent can­not be con­sul­ted without in­cur­ring un­reas­on­able trouble or ex­pense.³⁷⁹

² The child owes his or her par­ents obed­i­ence; ac­cord­ing to how ma­ture the child is, the par­ents shall al­low the child the free­dom to shape his or her own life and, wherever feas­ible, take due ac­count of the child’s opin­ion in im­port­ant mat­ters.

³ The child is not per­mit­ted to leave the fam­ily home without the par­ents’ con­sent, nor may he or she be un­law­fully re­moved from them.

⁴ The par­ents give the child his or her first name.

¹ Par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity in­cludes the right to de­cide on the child's place of res­id­ence.

² If par­ents ex­er­cise joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity and if one par­ent wishes to change the child's place of res­id­ence, this re­quires the con­sent of the oth­er par­ent or a de­cision of the court or the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity if:

a.

the new place of res­id­ence is out­side Switzer­land; or

b.

the change of place of res­id­ence has ser­i­ous con­sequences for the abil­ity of the oth­er par­ent to ex­er­cise par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity and have con­tact.

³ If one par­ent has sole par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity and if he or she wishes to change the child's place of res­id­ence, he must in­form the oth­er par­ent of this in good time.

⁴ A par­ent who wishes to change his or her own dom­i­cile has the same duty to provide in­form­a­tion.

⁵ If re­quired, the par­ents shall agree to modi­fy the rules on par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, res­id­ence, con­tact and the child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion in such a way as to safe­guard the child's best in­terests. If they are un­able to agree, the court or the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity de­cides.

¹ The par­ents must raise the child ac­cord­ing to their cir­cum­stances and en­cour­age and safe­guard the child's phys­ic­al, men­tal and mor­al de­vel­op­ment.

² The par­ents must ar­range for the child, es­pe­cially if he or she has phys­ic­al or learn­ing dis­ab­il­it­ies, to re­ceive an ap­pro­pri­ate gen­er­al and vo­ca­tion­al edu­ca­tion that cor­res­ponds as closely as pos­sible to the child’s abil­it­ies and in­clin­a­tions.

³ To that end, the par­ents must co-op­er­ate as ap­pro­pri­ate with school au­thor­it­ies and, where re­quired, with pub­lic and char­it­able youth sup­port agen­cies.

¹ The par­ents are free to de­term­ine the child’s re­li­gious up­bring­ing.

² Any agree­ment re­strict­ing this free­dom is in­val­id.

³ Once a child is 16 years of age, he or she is free to de­cide his or her own re­li­gious de­nom­in­a­tion.

¹ By op­er­a­tion of law, the par­ents are ves­ted with the power to rep­res­ent the child in all deal­ings with third parties to the ex­tent they have par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity for the child.³⁸⁷

² If both par­ents have par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, all third parties act­ing in good faith may as­sume that each par­ent acts with the oth­er’s con­sent.³⁸⁸

³ Par­ents act­ing as their child's rep­res­ent­at­ive may not provide any fin­an­cial guar­an­tees, es­tab­lish any found­a­tions or make gifts on be­half of the cli­ent, with the ex­cep­tion of cus­tom­ary oc­ca­sion­al gifts.³⁸⁹

¹ A child un­der par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity may by his or her own acts es­tab­lish rights and ob­lig­a­tions and ex­er­cise strictly per­son­al rights un­der the law of per­sons.³⁹²

² The child is li­able with all his or her as­sets for any ob­lig­a­tions entered in­to, without re­gard to the par­ents’ prop­erty rights.

¹ Chil­dren with ca­pa­city of judge­ment who are un­der par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity may, with their par­ents’ con­sent, act for the fam­ily as a whole, but in so do­ing en­gage not them­selves but their par­ents.³⁹⁴

² If the par­ents are pre­ven­ted from act­ing or if they have in­terests in a mat­ter that con­flict with those of the child, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall ap­point a deputy or reg­u­late the mat­ter it­self.³⁹⁵

³ In the event of a con­flict of in­terests, the par­ents' powers be­come auto­mat­ic­ally void by law in re­la­tion to the mat­ter con­cerned.³⁹⁶

¹ If the child’s best in­terests are threatened and the par­ents are un­will­ing or un­able to rem­edy the situ­ation, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity must take all ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures to pro­tect the child.

² The child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity has the same duty with re­gard to chil­dren placed with foster par­ents or oth­er­wise liv­ing out­side the fam­ily home.

³ In par­tic­u­lar it is en­titled to re­mind par­ents, foster par­ents or the child of their du­ties, is­sue spe­cif­ic in­struc­tions re­gard­ing care, up­bring­ing or edu­ca­tion and ap­point a suit­able per­son or agency with powers to in­vest­ig­ate and mon­it­or the situ­ation.

¹ Where cir­cum­stances so re­quire, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall ap­point a child deputy whose func­tion is to help the par­ents look after the child by provid­ing ad­vice and prac­tic­al sup­port.

² It may as­sign spe­cial powers to the deputy, in par­tic­u­lar to rep­res­ent the child in the pa­tern­ity ac­tion, in safe­guard­ing the child's right to child sup­port and the child's oth­er rights and in su­per­vising con­tact.⁴⁰⁰

³ Par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity may be re­stric­ted ac­cord­ingly.

¹ Where there is no oth­er way to avert a threat to the child’s best in­terests, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity must re­move the child from the par­ents or from any third parties with whom he or she is stay­ing and place the child in a suit­able loc­a­tion.

² At the re­quest of the par­ents or the child, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity must do like­wise if re­la­tions between them have de­teri­or­ated to the ex­tent that it is no longer con­scion­able for the child to re­main in the fam­ily home and provided no oth­er prac­tic­al rem­edy is avail­able in the cir­cum­stances.

³ Where a child has lived for some length of time with foster par­ents, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity may for­bid the par­ents to take the child back if such ac­tion might pose a ser­i­ous risk to the child’s de­vel­op­ment.

¹ If oth­er child pro­tec­tion meas­ures have failed or of­fer little pro­spect of prov­ing ad­equate, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall re­voke par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity:⁴⁰⁶

1.⁴⁰⁷

if the par­ents are un­able to ex­er­cise par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity as re­quired on ac­count of in­ex­per­i­ence, ill­ness, dis­ab­il­ity, ab­sence, vi­ol­ent be­ha­viour or oth­er sim­il­ar reas­ons;

2.

if the par­ents have not cared for the child to any mean­ing­ful de­gree or have flag­rantly vi­ol­ated their du­ties to­wards the child.

² Where par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity is with­drawn from both par­ents, a leg­al guard­i­an is ap­poin­ted for their chil­dren.

³ Un­less ex­pressly ordered oth­er­wise, the with­draw­al of par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity is ef­fect­ive in re­spect of all the chil­dren, in­clud­ing those born sub­sequently.

The child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall with­draw par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity:⁴¹⁰

1.

if the par­ents so re­quest for good cause;

2.

if the par­ents have con­sen­ted to hav­ing the child ad­op­ted in fu­ture by un­named third parties.

¹ If cir­cum­stances change, the child pro­tec­tion meas­ures in place must be ad­ap­ted to suit the new situ­ation.

² On no ac­count may par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity be re­stored with­in less than one year of its with­draw­al.

¹ The pro­vi­sions on the pro­ced­ure be­fore the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

² In ap­pro­pri­ate cases, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity may re­quest the par­ents to at­tempt me­di­ation.

³ If the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity ap­points a deputy, it shall state the tasks of the deputy and any re­stric­tions on par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity in the de­cision.

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

² The re­cord of the hear­ing con­tains only the find­ings of rel­ev­ance to the de­cision. The par­ents are in­formed of these find­ings.

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

¹ If ne­ces­sary, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall or­der the child to be rep­res­en­ted and ap­point a per­son ex­per­i­enced in wel­fare and leg­al mat­ters as the child's deputy.

² The child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall con­sider the ap­point­ment of a rep­res­ent­at­ive in par­tic­u­lar if:

1.

the pro­ceed­ings re­late to the child's ac­com­mod­a­tion;

2.

the parties file dif­fer­ing ap­plic­a­tions in re­la­tion to reg­u­lat­ing par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity or im­port­ant con­tact is­sues.

³ The child's deputy may file ap­plic­a­tions and ap­peals.

¹ If the child must be com­mit­ted to a se­cure in­sti­tu­tion or a psy­chi­at­ric hos­pit­al, the adult pro­tec­tion pro­vi­sions on care-re­lated hos­pit­al­isa­tion ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

² If the child is cap­able of judge­ment, he or she may pe­ti­tion the court dir­ectly.

¹ Any per­son may no­ti­fy the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­it­ies if a child’s phys­ic­al, men­tal or sexu­al in­teg­rity ap­pears to be at risk.

² If a re­port is in the in­terest of the child, per­sons who are sub­ject to pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity un­der the Swiss Crim­in­al Code⁴¹⁷ are also en­titled to no­ti­fy the au­thor­it­ies. This pro­vi­sion does not ap­ply to aux­il­i­ary per­sons bound by pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity un­der the Crim­in­al Code.

¹ The fol­low­ing per­sons, provided they are not sub­ject to pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity un­der the Swiss Crim­in­al Code⁴¹⁹, are ob­liged to re­port if there are clear in­dic­a­tions that the phys­ic­al, psy­cho­lo­gic­al or sexu­al in­teg­rity of a child is at risk and that they can­not rem­edy the threat as part of their pro­fes­sion­al activ­it­ies:

1.

spe­cial­ists from the fields of medi­cine, psy­cho­logy, care ser­vices, child­care, edu­ca­tion, coun­selling, re­li­gion and sport who have reg­u­lar con­tact with chil­dren;

2.

per­sons who learn of such a case in their of­fi­cial ca­pa­city.

² The duty to no­ti­fy is ful­filled when a per­son no­ti­fies a su­per­i­or.

³ The can­tons may provide for fur­ther no­ti­fic­a­tion ob­lig­a­tions.

¹ The per­sons and third parties in­volved in the pro­ceed­ings are ob­liged to co­oper­ate in as­cer­tain­ing the facts of the case. The child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity is­sues the ne­ces­sary or­ders to pro­tect any in­terests worthy of pro­tec­tion. If ne­ces­sary, it shall is­sue an or­der for the com­puls­ory en­force­ment of the duty to co­oper­ate.

² Per­sons bound by pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity in ac­cord­ance with the Swiss Crim­in­al Code⁴²¹ are en­titled to co­oper­ate without hav­ing to be re­leased from this con­fid­en­ti­al­ity re­quire­ment be­fore­hand. This pro­vi­sion does not ap­ply to aux­il­i­ary per­sons bound by pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity un­der the Crim­in­al Code.

³ Per­sons bound by pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity in ac­cord­ance with the Swiss Crim­in­al Code are ob­liged to co­oper­ate if the per­son en­titled to con­fid­en­ti­al­ity has au­thor­ised them to do so or if the su­per­i­or au­thor­ity or the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity has re­leased them from pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity at the re­quest of the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity. Art­icle 13 of the Law­yers Act of 23 June 2000⁴²² re­mains re­served.

⁴ Ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­it­ies and courts shall pass on the ne­ces­sary doc­u­ment­a­tion, re­ports and in­form­a­tion, provided there is no con­flict with in­terests worthy of pro­tec­tion.

¹ Child pro­tec­tion meas­ures are ordered by the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­it­ies at the child’s dom­i­cile.⁴²⁵

² If the child lives with foster par­ents or oth­er­wise out­side the par­ent­al fam­ily home or if there is risk in delay, re­spons­ib­il­ity also rests with the au­thor­it­ies of the place in which the child is cur­rently stay­ing.

³ If the lat­ter au­thor­it­ies im­ple­ment a child pro­tec­tion meas­ure, they must in­form the au­thor­ity at the child’s dom­i­cile.

¹ If the court is called on to rule on re­la­tions between the par­ents and the chil­dren in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing di­vorce or pro­tec­tion of the mar­it­al uni­on, it must also or­der all ne­ces­sary child pro­tec­tion meas­ures and in­struct the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity to im­ple­ment them.⁴²⁷

² The court may also modi­fy child pro­tec­tion meas­ures already in place to take ac­count of changes in cir­cum­stances.

³ However, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity re­tains the power:⁴²⁸

1.

to con­tin­ue child pro­tec­tion pro­ceed­ings in­tro­duced pri­or to the court pro­ceed­ings;

2.

to or­der such meas­ures as are re­quired im­me­di­ately to pro­tect the child where the court is un­likely to be able to do so in good time.

¹ The court has jur­is­dic­tion to amend court or­ders re­gard­ing cus­tody awards and child pro­tec­tion:

1.

dur­ing di­vorce pro­ceed­ings;

2.

in pro­ceed­ings to al­ter the di­vorce de­cree pur­su­ant to the reg­u­la­tions gov­ern­ing di­vorce;

3.

in pro­ceed­ings to modi­fy meas­ures for pro­tec­tion of the mar­it­al uni­on; the reg­u­la­tions gov­ern­ing di­vorce are ap­plic­able mu­tatis mutandis.

² In all oth­er cases jur­is­dic­tion lies with the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity.⁴³⁰

¹ Any per­son tak­ing in foster chil­dren re­quires au­thor­isa­tion from and is un­der the su­per­vi­sion of the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity at his dom­i­cile or some oth­er body des­ig­nated by the can­ton.

^1bis Where a child is fostered with a view to sub­sequent ad­op­tion, a single can­ton­al au­thor­ity is re­spons­ible.⁴³²

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil en­acts im­ple­ment­ing reg­u­la­tions.

The can­tons is­sue such reg­u­la­tions as are re­quired to en­sure ef­fect­ive co­oper­a­tion between the au­thor­it­ies and of­fi­cial bod­ies in the areas of child pro­tec­tion un­der civil law, the crim­in­al law re­lat­ing to young of­fend­ers and oth­er youth sup­port activ­it­ies.

¹ As long as they have par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity for the child, the par­ents have the right and the duty to ad­min­is­ter the child’s prop­erty.

² If a par­ent dies, the sur­viv­ing par­ent must file an in­vent­ory of the child's prop­erty with the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity.⁴³⁶

³ If the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity re­gards it as ap­pro­pri­ate in view of the nature and ex­tent of the child's prop­erty and the per­son­al cir­cum­stances of the par­ents, it shall or­der an in­vent­ory to be pre­pared or reg­u­lar ac­counts and re­ports to be sub­mit­ted.⁴³⁷

¹ The par­ents are per­mit­ted to use the in­come from the child’s prop­erty for the child’s main­ten­ance, up­bring­ing and edu­ca­tion and, where equit­able, also for the re­quire­ments of the house­hold.

² Any sur­plus ac­crues to the child’s prop­erty.

¹ Set­tle­ments, com­pens­a­tion and sim­il­ar pay­ments may be used in por­tions to fund the child’s main­ten­ance in ac­cord­ance with its cur­rent re­quire­ments.

² Where ne­ces­sary to meet the costs of main­ten­ance, up­bring­ing or edu­ca­tion, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity may per­mit the par­ents to make use of oth­er parts of the child’s as­sets in spe­cif­ic amounts.

¹ The par­ents are not per­mit­ted to draw on rev­en­ue from the child’s as­sets if, when giv­en to the child, they were des­ig­nated as in­terest-bear­ing in­vest­ments or sav­ings or use of the rev­en­ue by the par­ents was ex­pressly ex­cluded.

² Man­age­ment by the par­ents is ex­cluded only where ex­pressly so provided when the child is en­dowed with the as­sets.

¹ By test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion the child’s right to claim the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment may also be ex­cluded from man­age­ment by the par­ents.

² If the test­at­or ap­points a third party to ad­min­is­ter the be­quest, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity may re­quire the lat­ter to carry out peri­od­ic ac­count­ing and re­port­ing.

¹ The child man­ages and en­joys the be­ne­fits of all fruits of his or her own la­bour and of those of his or her as­sets that are re­leased by his or her par­ents for use in the child's pro­fes­sion­al or busi­ness activ­it­ies.

² If the child lives with its par­ents in the fam­ily home, they may re­quire the child to make an ap­pro­pri­ate con­tri­bu­tion to his or her main­ten­ance.

¹ Where there is no ad­equate guar­an­tee that the child’s prop­erty will be di­li­gently man­aged, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity takes the ne­ces­sary meas­ures to pro­tect it.

² In par­tic­u­lar, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity may is­sue in­struc­tions re­gard­ing such man­age­ment and, where the peri­od­ic ac­count­ing and re­port­ing is in­suf­fi­cient, may or­der the par­ents to de­pos­it the prop­erty or fur­nish se­cur­ity.

³ Pro­ced­ure and jur­is­dic­tion are reg­u­lated mu­tatis mutandis by the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing child pro­tec­tion.

¹ If there is no oth­er way to avert a threat to the child’s prop­erty, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall ap­point a child wel­fare ad­voc­ate to man­age it.

² The child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity does like­wise if a child’s prop­erty that is not man­aged by the par­ents is threatened.

³ Where there is ser­i­ous con­cern that in­come from the child’s prop­erty or the amounts des­ig­nated for use or re­leased to cov­er the child’s needs are not be­ing used as in­ten­ded, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity may also ap­point a child wel­fare ad­voc­ate to man­age those as­sets.

On ter­min­a­tion of par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity or the par­ents’ man­age­ment, the par­ents must hand over the child’s prop­erty to­geth­er with a fi­nal state­ment of ac­count to the adult child or to the child’s leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive.

¹ The par­ents are li­able to make resti­tu­tion as if they were au­thor­ised agents.

² The par­ents must sur­render the pro­ceeds of any prop­erty ali­en­ated in good faith.

³ The par­ents do not owe com­pens­a­tion for any au­thor­ised ex­pendit­ures on the child or the house­hold.

If a child is not sub­ject to par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall ap­point a guard­i­an for the child.

A child sub­ject to guard­i­an­ship has the same leg­al status as a child sub­ject to par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity.

¹ A guard­i­an has the same rights as the par­ents.

² The pro­vi­sions on adult pro­tec­tion, and in par­tic­u­lar on ap­point­ing a and act­ing as a deputy and the in­volve­ment of the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

³ If the child must be com­mit­ted to a se­cure in­sti­tu­tion or psy­chi­at­ric hos­pit­al, the adult pro­tec­tion pro­vi­sions on care-re­lated hos­pit­al­isa­tion ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

¹ A per­son liv­ing in fin­an­cial com­fort has a duty to lend as­sist­ance to any lin­eal re­l­at­ives of older or young­er gen­er­a­tions who would suf­fer hard­ship without such as­sist­ance.

² The duty of main­ten­ance of par­ents, spouses and re­gistered part­ners is re­served.⁴⁴⁹

¹ The claim for as­sist­ance is dir­ec­ted against those with a duty to provide it in or­der of their in­her­it­ance en­ti­tle­ments; the amount is de­pend­ent on the de­gree of as­sist­ance re­quired to main­tain the in­di­gent claimant and on the cir­cum­stances of the per­son ob­liged to provide it.

^1bis No claim for sup­port may be made if the hard­ship arises from a re­stric­tion in the abil­ity to pur­sue gain­ful em­ploy­ment ow­ing to the care of one’s own chil­dren.⁴⁵¹

² Where in the light of spe­cial cir­cum­stances the court deems it in­equit­able to re­quire a per­son to ful­fil his duty of as­sist­ance, the court may re­strict such duty or re­voke it en­tirely.⁴⁵²

³ The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing child main­ten­ance en­ti­tle­ment and the trans­fer of such en­ti­tle­ment to the state au­thor­ity are ap­plic­able mu­tatis mutandis.⁴⁵³

¹ Found­lings are main­tained by the com­mune in which they have be­come nat­ur­al­ised.

² If a found­ling’s par­ent­age is es­tab­lished, the com­mune may re­quire those re­l­at­ives with a duty of as­sist­ance and, as a last re­course, the state au­thor­ity un­der such duty to com­pensate it for the costs in­curred in main­tain­ing the found­ling.

¹ Where by law, agree­ment or fam­ily cus­tom per­sons liv­ing in com­mon house­hold have a head of the fam­ily, such per­son holds au­thor­ity with­in the house­hold.

² The au­thor­ity ex­tends over all per­sons liv­ing in the house­hold, wheth­er re­l­at­ives by blood⁴⁵⁴ or by mar­riage or em­ploy­ees or per­sons in a sim­il­ar po­s­i­tion based on a con­trac­tu­al re­la­tion­ship.⁴⁵⁵

¹ The house rules to which the house­hold mem­bers are sub­ject must take due ac­count of the in­terests of all in­volved.

² In par­tic­u­lar, the house­hold mem­bers must be al­lowed the free­dom re­quired for their edu­ca­tion, oc­cu­pa­tion and re­li­gious prac­tices.

³ All prop­erty brought in by the house­hold mem­bers must be kept safe and sound by the head of the fam­ily with the same care and at­ten­tion giv­en to his own prop­erty.

¹ If dam­age is caused by a mem­ber of the house­hold who is a minor, suf­fers from a men­tal dis­ab­il­ity, is sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship, or is men­tally ill, the head of the fam­ily is li­able un­less he can show that his su­per­vi­sion of the house­hold was as di­li­gent as would nor­mally be ex­pec­ted in the cir­cum­stances pre­vail­ing.⁴⁵⁶

² The head of the fam­ily is ob­liged to en­sure that the con­di­tion of a house­hold mem­ber who suf­fers from a men­tal dis­ab­il­ity or a men­tal ill­ness does not res­ult in risk or dam­age to him­self or to oth­ers.⁴⁵⁷

³ Where ne­ces­sary, the head of the fam­ily must no­ti­fy the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity with a view to hav­ing the re­quis­ite pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ures put in place.

¹ Adult chil­dren or grand­chil­dren who have con­trib­uted their la­bour or in­come to par­ents or grand­par­ents with whom they live in a com­mon house­hold are en­titled to suit­able com­pens­a­tion in re­turn.⁴⁵⁹

² In the event of dis­pute the court de­term­ines the amount of com­pens­a­tion, the se­cur­ity re­quired and the pay­ment meth­od.

¹ The com­pens­a­tion due to chil­dren or grand­chil­dren may be claimed on the debt­or’s death.

² It may also be claimed dur­ing the debt­or’s life­time if his prop­erty is dis­trained or he is de­clared bank­rupt, the com­mon house­hold ceases to ex­ist or the busi­ness changes hands.

³ The claim is not sub­ject to pre­scrip­tion, but must be brought at the latest on di­vi­sion of the de­ceased debt­or’s es­tate.

¹ A body of as­sets may be tied to a fam­ily by means of a fam­ily found­a­tion cre­ated un­der the law of per­sons or in­her­it­ance law in or­der to meet the costs of rais­ing, en­dow­ing or sup­port­ing fam­ily mem­bers or for sim­il­ar pur­poses.

² It is no longer per­mit­ted to es­tab­lish a fee tail.

Mem­bers of a fam­ily may tie a body of as­sets to the fam­ily by pla­cing all or part of an in­her­it­ance or oth­er prop­erty un­der joint own­er­ship in un­di­vided shares.

The agree­ment es­tab­lish­ing joint own­er­ship in un­di­vided shares is val­id only if done as a pub­lic deed signed by all co-own­ers or their rep­res­ent­at­ives.

¹ Joint own­er­ship in un­di­vided shares may be con­sti­tuted for a lim­ited or in­def­in­ite dur­a­tion.

² If con­sti­tuted for an in­def­in­ite dur­a­tion, it may be ter­min­ated by any co-own­er sub­ject to six months’ no­tice.

³ Where the co-owned as­set is an ag­ri­cul­tur­al en­ter­prise, such no­tice must al­ways ex­pire on a spring or au­tumn date in ac­cord­ance with loc­al cus­tom.

¹ Joint own­er­ship in un­di­vided shares binds the co-own­ers to­geth­er in com­mon eco­nom­ic activ­ity.

² Un­less oth­er­wise provided, they en­joy equal rights in the co-owned prop­erty.

³ For the dur­a­tion of their joint own­er­ship in un­di­vided shares, they may neither seek a di­vi­sion of the prop­erty nor dis­pose of their own share.

¹ The af­fairs of the joint own­er­ship in un­di­vided shares are reg­u­lated by all the co-own­ers act­ing col­lect­ively.

² Each co-own­er may take or­din­ary ad­min­is­trat­ive ac­tions on his own ini­ti­at­ive.

¹ The co-own­ers may ap­point one of their num­ber to act as their man­ager.

² The man­ager rep­res­ents the co-own­ers in all ex­tern­al deal­ings and dir­ects their eco­nom­ic activ­it­ies.

³ Where rep­res­ent­a­tion by the oth­er co-own­ers is ex­cluded, such ex­clu­sion may be in­voked against third parties act­ing in good faith only if the sole rep­res­ent­at­ive is entered in the com­mer­cial re­gister.

¹ The prop­erty un­der joint own­er­ship in un­di­vided shares is owned col­lect­ively by all the co-own­ers.

² The co-own­ers are jointly and sev­er­ally li­able for debts en­cum­ber­ing such prop­erty.

³ Ex­cept where oth­er­wise agreed, all prop­erty be­long­ing to a co-own­er be­sides that owned col­lect­ively in un­di­vided shares, and all prop­erty in­her­ited or ac­quired in some oth­er man­ner without valu­able con­sid­er­a­tion dur­ing the co-own­er­ship is the per­son­al prop­erty of that co-own­er.

Joint own­er­ship in un­di­vided shares is dis­solved:

1.

by agree­ment or no­tice of ter­min­a­tion;

2.

on ex­piry of the peri­od for which own­er­ship in un­di­vided shares was es­tab­lished, provid­ing it is not ta­citly re­newed;

3.

on real­isa­tion of a co-own­er’s share of the prop­erty that has been dis­trained;

4.

if a co-own­er is de­clared bank­rupt;

5.

at the re­quest of a co-own­er for good cause.