Swiss Civil Code

¹ The law ap­plies ac­cord­ing to its word­ing or in­ter­pret­a­tion to all leg­al ques­tions for which it con­tains a pro­vi­sion.

² In the ab­sence of a pro­vi­sion, the court⁴ shall de­cide in ac­cord­ance with cus­tom­ary law and, in the ab­sence of cus­tom­ary law, in ac­cord­ance with the rule that it would make as le­gis­lat­or.

³ In do­ing so, the court shall fol­low es­tab­lished doc­trine and case law.

¹ Every per­son must act in good faith in the ex­er­cise of his or her rights and in the per­form­ance of his or her ob­lig­a­tions.

² The mani­fest ab­use of a right is not pro­tec­ted by law.

¹ Where the law makes a leg­al ef­fect con­di­tion­al on the good faith of a per­son, there shall be a pre­sump­tion of good faith.

² No per­son may in­voke the pre­sump­tion of good faith if he or she has failed ex­er­cise the di­li­gence re­quired by the cir­cum­stances.

Where the law con­fers dis­cre­tion on the court or makes ref­er­ence to an as­sess­ment of the cir­cum­stances or to good cause, the court must reach its de­cision in ac­cord­ance with the prin­ciples of justice and equity.

¹ In­so­far as fed­er­al law re­serves the ap­plic­a­tion of can­ton­al law, the can­tons may en­act or re­peal civil law pro­vi­sions.

² Where the law makes ref­er­ence to prac­tice or loc­al cus­tom, the ex­ist­ing can­ton­al law is deemed a val­id ex­pres­sion there­of, provided no di­ver­gent prac­tice is shown to ex­ist.

¹ Fed­er­al civil law does not re­strict the right of the can­tons to en­act pub­lic law.

² The can­tons are en­titled with­in the lim­its of their sov­er­eignty to re­strict or pro­hib­it the trade in cer­tain goods or to de­clare trans­ac­tions in­volving such goods leg­ally in­val­id.

The gen­er­al pro­vi­sions of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions⁶ con­cern­ing the form­a­tion, per­form­ance and ter­min­a­tion of con­tracts also ap­ply to oth­er civil law mat­ters.

Un­less the law provides oth­er­wise, the bur­den of prov­ing the ex­ist­ence of an al­leged fact shall rest on the per­son who de­rives rights from that fact.

¹ Pub­lic re­gisters and pub­lic deeds con­sti­tute full proof of the facts evid­enced by them, un­less their con­tent is shown to be in­cor­rect.

² Such proof of in­cor­rect­ness does not re­quire to be in any par­tic­u­lar form.

¹ Every per­son has leg­al ca­pa­city.

² Ac­cord­ingly, with­in the lim­its of the law, every per­son has the same ca­pa­city to have rights and ob­lig­a­tions.

A per­son who has ca­pa­city to act has the ca­pa­city to cre­ate rights and ob­lig­a­tions through his ac­tions.

A per­son who is of age and is cap­able of judge­ment has the ca­pa­city to act.

A per­son is of age if he or she has reached the age of 18.

A per­son is cap­able of judge­ment with­in the mean­ing of the law if he or she does not lack the ca­pa­city to act ra­tion­ally by vir­tue of be­ing un­der age or be­cause of a men­tal dis­ab­il­ity, men­tal dis­order, in­tox­ic­a­tion or sim­il­ar cir­cum­stances.

A per­son does not have the ca­pa­city to act if he or she is in­cap­able of judge­ment or is un­der age or is sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship.

A per­son who is in­cap­able of judge­ment can­not cre­ate leg­al ef­fect by his or her ac­tions, un­less the law provides oth­er­wise.

¹ Per­sons who are cap­able of judge­ment but lack the ca­pa­city to act may only enter in­to ob­lig­a­tions or give up rights with the con­sent of their leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive.¹⁴

² Without such con­sent, they may only ac­cept ad­vant­ages that are free of charge or carry out minor every­day trans­ac­tions.¹⁵

³ They are li­able in dam­ages for un­per­mit­ted acts.

¹ Un­less the law provides oth­er­wise, the leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive may con­sent ex­pressly or ta­citly in ad­vance or ap­prove the trans­ac­tion ret­ro­spect­ively.

² The oth­er party is re­lieved of any ob­lig­a­tion if ap­prov­al is not giv­en with­in a reas­on­able peri­od that he or she fixes or has fixed by a court.

¹ If the leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive does not grant ap­prov­al, either party may de­mand resti­tu­tion of any per­form­ance already made. A per­son lack­ing ca­pa­city to act is however only li­able to the ex­tent that he or she has already be­nefited from the per­form­ance or to which he or she has been en­riched at the time of the de­mand or has ali­en­ated the be­ne­fits in bad faith.

² If the per­son lack­ing ca­pa­city to act has in­duced the oth­er party to er­ro­neously as­sume that he or she has the ca­pa­city to act, he or she is li­able for the dam­age in­curred.

¹ Per­sons cap­able of judge­ment but lack­ing ca­pa­city to act ex­er­cise their strictly per­son­al rights in­de­pend­ently; cases where the law re­quires the con­sent of the leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive are re­served.

² The leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive acts for a per­son lack­ing ca­pa­city of judge­ment un­less a right is so strictly per­son­al that any form of rep­res­ent­a­tion is ex­cluded.

The ca­pa­city to act may be re­stric­ted by an adult pro­tec­tion meas­ure.

¹ The de­gree of kin­ship²¹ is de­term­ined by the num­ber of in­ter­me­di­ary gen­er­a­tions.

² Lin­eal kin­ship ex­ists between two per­sons where one is des­cen­ded from the oth­er and col­lat­er­al kin­ship ex­ists between two per­sons where both are des­cen­ded from a third per­son and are not re­lated lin­eally.

¹ Where one per­son is re­lated to an­oth­er, he or she is re­lated as an in-law to the lat­ter’s spouse or re­gistered part­ner in the same line and to the same de­gree.

² Kin­ship by mar­riage is not ended by dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­riage or of the re­gistered part­ner­ship which cre­ated it.

¹ The place of ori­gin of a per­son is de­term­ined by his or her cit­izen­ship.

² Cit­izen­ship is gov­erned by pub­lic law.

³ If a per­son is a cit­izen of more than one place, his or her place of ori­gin is the one in which he or she is or was most re­cently res­id­ent or, in the ab­sence of any such res­id­ence, the one in which he or she or his or her an­cest­ors last ac­quired cit­izen­ship.

¹ A per­son’s dom­i­cile is the place in which he or she resides with the in­ten­tion of set­tling; res­id­ence for the pur­pose of edu­ca­tion or the ac­com­mod­a­tion of a per­son in an edu­cat­ive in­sti­tu­tion or care home, a hos­pit­al or a pen­al in­sti­tu­tion does not by it­self es­tab­lish dom­i­cile.²³

² No per­son may have more than one dom­i­cile at a time.

³ This pro­vi­sion does not ap­ply to places of busi­ness.

¹ A per­son re­tains his or her dom­i­cile un­til such time as a new one is ac­quired.

² A per­son’s dom­i­cile is deemed to be the place in which he or she is tem­por­ar­ily res­id­ent if no pre­vi­ously es­tab­lished dom­i­cile may be proven or if he or she was formerly res­id­ent abroad and has not yet es­tab­lished a dom­i­cile in Switzer­land.

¹ The dom­i­cile of a child sub­ject to par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity²⁶ is deemed to be that of the par­ents or, if the par­ents have dif­fer­ent dom­i­ciles, that of the par­ent with whom the child is res­id­ent; in all oth­er cases it is deemed to be the child’s tem­por­ary dom­i­cile.

² Chil­dren un­der guard­i­an­ship are dom­i­ciled at the seat of the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity.²⁷

Adults sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship are dom­i­ciled at the loc­a­tion of the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity.

¹ No per­son may, wholly or in part, re­nounce his or her leg­al ca­pa­city or his or her ca­pa­city to act.

² No per­son may sur­render his or her free­dom or re­strict the use of it to a de­gree which vi­ol­ates the law or pub­lic mor­als.

¹ Any per­son whose per­son­al­ity rights are un­law­fully in­fringed may pe­ti­tion the court for pro­tec­tion against all those caus­ing the in­fringe­ment.

² An in­fringe­ment is un­law­ful un­less it is jus­ti­fied by the con­sent of the per­son whose rights are in­fringed or by an over­rid­ing private or pub­lic in­terest or by law.

¹ The ap­plic­ant may ask the court:

1.

to pro­hib­it a threatened in­fringe­ment;

2.

to or­der that an ex­ist­ing in­fringe­ment cease;

3.

to make a de­clar­a­tion that an in­fringe­ment is un­law­ful if it con­tin­ues to have an of­fens­ive ef­fect.

² In par­tic­u­lar the ap­plic­ant may re­quest that the rec­ti­fic­a­tion or the judg­ment be no­ti­fied to third parties or pub­lished.

³ Claims for dam­ages and sat­is­fac­tion and for hand­ing over profits in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing agency without au­thor­ity are re­served.

¹ To ob­tain pro­tec­tion from vi­ol­ence, threats or har­ass­ment, the ap­plic­ant may re­quest the court in par­tic­u­lar to or­der the of­fend­ing party to re­frain from:

1.

ap­proach­ing the ap­plic­ant or from en­ter­ing a defined area around the ap­plic­ant’s dwell­ing;

2.

fre­quent­ing spe­cified loc­a­tions, not­ably par­tic­u­lar streets, squares or dis­tricts;

3.

from mak­ing con­tact with the ap­plic­ant, es­pe­cially by tele­phone, in writ­ing or elec­tron­ic­ally, or from har­ass­ing the ap­plic­ant in any oth­er way.

² If the ap­plic­ant lives in the same dwell­ing as the of­fend­ing party, the ap­plic­ant may ask the court to or­der the of­fend­ing party to leave the dwell­ing for a spe­cified peri­od. This peri­od may be ex­ten­ded on one oc­ca­sion for good cause.

³ Where jus­ti­fied by the cir­cum­stances, the court may:

1.

re­quire the ap­plic­ant to pay reas­on­able com­pens­a­tion for his or her ex­clus­ive use of the dwell­ing; or

2.

with the land­lord’s con­sent, trans­fer the rights and ob­lig­a­tions un­der the lease to the ap­plic­ant alone.

^3bis It shall give no­tice of its de­cision to the com­pet­ent child and adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­it­ies, the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity un­der para­graph 4 and oth­er au­thor­it­ies and third parties, provided this ap­pears ne­ces­sary in or­der to ful­fil its re­spons­ib­il­it­ies or for the pro­tec­tion of the ap­plic­ant, or en­ables the de­cision to be en­forced.³⁴

⁴ The can­tons shall des­ig­nate an au­thor­ity which in ur­gent cases may or­der the im­me­di­ate ex­pul­sion of the of­fend­ing party from the joint dwell­ing and shall en­act rules gov­ern­ing the pro­ced­ure.

¹ The court that is­sues an in­junc­tion pur­su­ant to the pro­vi­sion on vi­ol­ence, threats or har­ass­ment, and the en­force­ment court, may on the ap­plic­ant's re­quest or­der the use of an elec­tron­ic device that is se­curely at­tached to the of­fend­ing party and which can con­tinu­ously as­cer­tain and re­cord his or her loc­a­tion.

² The meas­ure may be ordered for a max­im­um of six months. It may be ex­ten­ded by a max­im­um of six months at a time. As a pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ure, the meas­ure may be ordered for a max­im­um peri­od of six months.

³ The can­tons shall des­ig­nate an au­thor­ity that is re­spons­ible for en­for­cing the meas­ure, and shall reg­u­late the en­force­ment pro­ced­ure. They shall en­sure that the data re­cor­ded on the per­sons con­cerned are used only to en­force the in­junc­tion and are de­leted twelve months at the latest after ter­min­a­tion of the meas­ure.

⁴ The ap­plic­ant must not in­cur any costs from the en­force­ment of the meas­ure. The per­son mon­itored may be charged the costs of the meas­ure.

¹ Any per­son whose per­son­al­ity rights are dir­ectly af­fected by a rep­res­ent­a­tion of events in peri­od­ic­ally ap­pear­ing me­dia, es­pe­cially the press, ra­dio or tele­vi­sion, shall have a right of reply.

² There is no right of reply in re­spect of ac­cur­ate re­ports of the pub­lic deal­ings of an au­thor­ity in which the af­fected per­son took part.

¹ The text of the reply must be suc­cinct and con­fine it­self to the sub­ject mat­ter of the con­ten­tious rep­res­ent­a­tion.

² The reply may be re­fused if it is plainly in­cor­rect or vi­ol­ates the law or pub­lic mor­als.

¹ The au­thor of the reply must send the text to the me­dia com­pany with­in 20 days of learn­ing of the con­ten­tious rep­res­ent­a­tion, but at the latest with­in three months of pub­lic­a­tion.

² The me­dia com­pany must im­me­di­ately in­form the au­thor of the reply when it will be pub­lished or why it is re­jec­ted.

¹ The reply must be pub­lished as soon as pos­sible and in such a man­ner as to en­sure that it reaches the same audi­ence or read­er­ship as the con­ten­tious rep­res­ent­a­tion.

² The reply must be iden­ti­fied as such; the me­dia com­pany is not per­mit­ted to make any ad­di­tion ex­cept to state wheth­er it stands by its rep­res­ent­a­tion or to in­dic­ate its sources.

³ The reply must be pub­lished free of charge.

¹ If the me­dia com­pany ob­structs the right of reply, re­jects the reply or fails to pub­lish it cor­rectly, the party in ques­tion may pe­ti­tion the court.

² ...⁴³

³ and ⁴ ...⁴⁴

¹ If a per­son’s use of his or her name is dis­puted, he or she may ap­ply for a court de­clar­a­tion con­firm­ing his rights.

² If a per­son is ad­versely af­fected be­cause an­oth­er per­son is us­ing his or her name, he or she may seek an or­der pro­hib­it­ing such use and, if the user is at fault, may bring a claim for dam­ages and, where jus­ti­fied by the nature of the in­fringe­ment, for sat­is­fac­tion.

¹ The gov­ern­ment of the can­ton of res­id­ence may per­mit a per­son to change his or her name for good cause.⁴⁶

² ...⁴⁷

³ A per­son ad­versely af­fected by a change of name may con­test the same in court with­in one year of learn­ing there­of.

A per­son whose spouse dies may, if that per­son changed his or her sur­name on mar­riage, 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 Any per­son who is firmly con­vinced that they are not of the sex entered in their re­spect in the civil re­gister may de­clare to the civil re­gis­trar that they wish to have the entry changed.

² The per­son mak­ing the de­clar­a­tion may have one or more new first names entered in the civil re­gister.

³ The de­clar­a­tion has no leg­al ef­fect on fam­ily re­la­tion­ships.

⁴ The con­sent of the leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive is re­quired if:

1.

the per­son mak­ing the de­clar­a­tion is un­der the age of 16;

2.

the per­son mak­ing the de­clar­a­tion is sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship; or

3.

the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity has so ordered.

¹ Per­son­al­ity rights be­gin on the birth of the liv­ing child and end on death.

² An un­born child has leg­al ca­pa­city provided that it sur­vives birth.

¹ Any per­son who, in ex­er­cising a right, re­lies on the fact that an­oth­er per­son is liv­ing or has died or was alive at a par­tic­u­lar time or sur­vived an­oth­er per­son must pro­duce evid­ence there­of.

² If it can­not be proved that, of a group of sev­er­al de­ceased per­sons, one sur­vived an­oth­er, all are deemed to have died at the same time.

¹ Proof of the birth or death of a per­son is es­tab­lished by the re­cords kept by the civil re­gister.

² If re­cords are miss­ing or shown to be in­cor­rect, proof may be ad­duced in an­oth­er form.

The death of a per­son is deemed proven, even if no-one has seen the corpse, if that per­son has dis­ap­peared in cir­cum­stances in which his death may be con­sidered cer­tain.

¹ If it is highly prob­able that a per­son is dead be­cause he or she has dis­ap­peared in ex­tremely life-threat­en­ing cir­cum­stances or has been miss­ing for a lengthy peri­od without any sign of life, the court may de­clare that per­son pre­sumed dead on ap­plic­a­tion by any per­son de­riv­ing rights from his or her death.

² ...⁵⁰

¹ The ap­plic­a­tion may be made when at least one year has elapsed since the life-threat­en­ing event or five years have elapsed since the last sign of life.

² The court must, by suit­able pub­lic means, call on any per­son who may provide in­form­a­tion about the miss­ing per­son to come for­ward with­in a spe­cified peri­od.

³ The peri­od shall run for at least one year fol­low­ing the first pub­lic no­tice.

If the miss­ing per­son comes for­ward with­in the set peri­od or if news of the miss­ing per­son is re­ceived or if the date of his or her death is proved, the ap­plic­a­tion fails.

¹ If no news is re­ceived dur­ing the set peri­od, the miss­ing per­son is de­clared pre­sumed dead and rights de­rived from the fact of his or her death may be en­forced as if death were proven.

² The de­clar­a­tion of pre­sumed death has ret­ro­act­ive ef­fect from the time of the life-threat­en­ing event or the last sign of life.

³ A de­clar­a­tion of pre­sumed death dis­solves a mar­riage.⁵¹

¹ Civil status is re­cor­ded in an elec­tron­ic re­gister (civil re­gister).

² Civil status in­cludes in par­tic­u­lar:

1.

a per­son’s par­tic­u­lars, such as those re­lat­ing to birth, mar­riage, re­gistered civil part­ner­ship and death;

2.

a per­son’s status un­der the law of per­sons and fam­ily law, such as ma­jor­ity, par­ent­age, mar­riage or re­gistered civil part­ner­ship;

3.

names;

4.

can­ton­al and com­mun­al cit­izen­ship;

5.

na­tion­al­ity.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines which per­sons and au­thor­it­ies have a duty to fur­nish the in­form­a­tion ne­ces­sary to re­cord civil status.

² It may provide that breaches of said duty be pun­ish­able by fines.

³ ...⁵⁵

¹ Where doc­u­ment­ary proof of in­form­a­tion con­cern­ing civil status is re­quired but is im­possible or un­reas­on­ably dif­fi­cult to ob­tain des­pite mak­ing reas­on­able ef­forts, the can­ton­al su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity may ac­cept a de­clar­a­tion made in the pres­ence of the re­gis­trar as proof provided such in­form­a­tion is not dis­puted.

² The re­gis­trar shall re­mind any per­son mak­ing such a de­clar­a­tion of his or her duty to tell the truth and that a false de­clar­a­tion may lead to pro­sec­u­tion.

¹ Any per­son who sat­is­fies the court that he or she has a per­son­al in­terest war­rant­ing pro­tec­tion may seek an or­der for the re­gis­tra­tion of dis­puted in­form­a­tion con­cern­ing per­son­al status or the rec­ti­fic­a­tion or re­mov­al of an entry. The court shall hear the rel­ev­ant can­ton­al su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity, to which it shall no­ti­fy its judg­ment.

² The can­ton­al su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies are like­wise en­titled to make such ap­plic­a­tions.

The re­gister au­thor­it­ies must of their own ac­cord rec­ti­fy mis­takes res­ult­ing from an ob­vi­ous over­sight or er­ror.

¹ In re­la­tion to the re­gis­tra­tion of civil status, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil is re­spons­ible for safe­guard­ing the per­son­al­ity and con­sti­tu­tion­al rights of per­sons in re­spect of whom data is pro­cessed.

² It reg­u­lates the dis­clos­ure of data to private per­sons who may show a dir­ect in­terest war­rant­ing pro­tec­tion.

³ It stip­u­lates those au­thor­it­ies, in ad­di­tion to the re­gister au­thor­it­ies, to whom the data ne­ces­sary for the per­form­ance of their leg­al du­ties may be dis­closed peri­od­ic­ally or on re­quest. The dis­clos­ure pro­vi­sions un­der can­ton­al law are re­served.

^3bis The re­gister au­thor­it­ies are re­quired to re­port to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity any crim­in­al of­fences that come to their at­ten­tion while car­ry­ing out their of­fi­cial du­ties.⁵⁷

⁴ The fol­low­ing bod­ies have on­line ac­cess to data re­quired for prov­ing the iden­tity of a per­son:

1.

the is­su­ing au­thor­it­ies un­der the Fed­er­al Act of 22 June 2001⁵⁸ on Iden­ti­fic­a­tion Doc­u­ments for Swiss Na­tion­als;

2.⁵⁹

the fed­er­al agency re­spons­ible for op­er­at­ing the com­pu­ter­ised po­lice search sys­tem un­der Art­icle 15 of the Fed­er­al Act of 13 June 2008⁶⁰ on the Fed­er­al Po­lice In­form­a­tion Sys­tems and the fil­ter­ing agen­cies of the can­ton­al and com­mun­al po­lice forces linked in­to the search sys­tem;

3.⁶¹

the fed­er­al au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for op­er­at­ing the VOSTRA Re­gister of Crim­in­al Re­cords in­form­a­tion sys­tem in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 3 of the Crim­in­al Re­cords Re­gister Act of 17 June 2016⁶²;

4.

the fed­er­al agency re­spons­ible for in­vest­ig­a­tions re­gard­ing miss­ing per­sons⁶³;

5.⁶⁴

the Fed­er­al In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice for the early de­tec­tion and pre­ven­tion of threats to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 6 para­graph 1 let­ter a of the In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice Act of 25 Septem­ber 2015⁶⁵;

6.⁶⁶

the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for keep­ing the can­ton­al and com­mun­al re­gisters of res­id­ents in ac­cord­ance with the Re­gister Har­mon­isa­tion Act of 23 June 2006⁶⁷;

7. ⁶⁸

the fed­er­al agen­cies re­spons­ible for keep­ing the cent­ral re­gisters of in­sured per­sons in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 71 para­graph 4 let­ter a of the Fed­er­al Act of 20 Decem­ber 1946⁶⁹ on Old-Age and Sur­viv­ors In­sur­ance;

8. ⁷⁰

the fed­er­al agen­cies at the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of For­eign Af­fairs re­spons­ible for keep­ing the re­gister of Swiss liv­ing abroad in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 1 of the Fed­er­al Act of 24 March 2000⁷¹ on the Pro­cessing of Per­son­al Data.

¹ In par­tic­u­lar, the re­gis­trars shall per­form the fol­low­ing tasks:

1.

they main­tain the civil re­gister;

2.

they make no­ti­fic­a­tions and provide ex­tracts;

3.

they carry out the pre­par­at­ory pro­ced­ure for wed­dings and con­duct the wed­ding ce­re­mony;

4.

they re­cord de­clar­a­tions as to civil status.

² Ex­cep­tion­ally, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may en­trust a rep­res­ent­at­ive of Switzer­land abroad with these tasks.

¹ Each can­ton shall ap­point a su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity.

² In par­tic­u­lar, the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity shall per­form the fol­low­ing tasks:

1.

it su­per­vises the re­gister of­fices;

2.

it sup­ports and ad­vises the re­gister of­fices;

3.

it as­sists in main­tain­ing the civil re­gister and in car­ry­ing out the pre­par­at­ory pro­ced­ure for wed­dings;

4.

it is­sues dir­ect­ives on re­cog­ni­tion and re­cord­ing of mat­ters re­lat­ing to civil status that oc­cur abroad and of for­eign ju­di­cial and ad­min­is­trat­ive de­cisions con­cern­ing civil status;

5.

it provides for the ba­sic and con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing of per­sons work­ing in the civil re­gister ser­vice.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion is re­spons­ible for over­sight. It may have re­course to can­ton­al ap­peal pro­ced­ures against the de­cisions of the re­gis­trars and the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies.⁷²

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall op­er­ate and de­vel­op a cent­ral civil in­form­a­tion sys­tem for run­ning a cent­ral­ised civil re­gister.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion bears the op­er­at­ing and de­vel­op­ment costs.

³ The can­tons shall pay the Con­fed­er­a­tion an an­nu­al fee for the use of the sys­tem for the pur­poses of man­aging the re­gister of civil status.

⁴ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall in­volve the can­tons in the de­vel­op­ment of the sys­tem and provide tech­nic­al sup­port in its use.

⁵ In co­oper­a­tion with the can­tons, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates:

1.

the de­tails of the can­tons’ in­volve­ment in de­vel­op­ing the sys­tem;

2.

the amount to be paid by the can­tons for its use;

3.

the rights of ac­cess of the civil re­gister au­thor­it­ies and oth­er agen­cies with ac­cess rights;

4.

how the Con­fed­er­a­tion and can­tons co­oper­ate over run­ning the sys­tem;

5.⁷⁴

the or­gan­isa­tion­al and tech­nic­al meas­ures ne­ces­sary to safe­guard data pro­tec­tion and data se­cur­ity and the su­per­vi­sion of com­pli­ance with the data pro­tec­tion reg­u­la­tions;

6.

data archiv­ing.

⁶ It may provide for the costs of ser­vices for third parties for pur­poses un­re­lated to civil status mat­ters to be charged to these third parties.

¹ Any per­son suf­fer­ing loss caused un­law­fully by per­sons em­ployed in the civil re­gister ser­vice in the ex­er­cise of their of­fi­cial du­ties is en­titled to dam­ages and, where jus­ti­fied by the grav­ity of the loss, to sat­is­fac­tion.

² The can­ton is li­able; it may have re­course against per­sons who have caused loss wil­fully or through gross neg­li­gence.

³ The Gov­ern­ment Li­ab­il­ity Act of 14 March 1958⁷⁵ ap­plies in re­la­tion to per­sons em­ployed by the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

¹ Wil­ful or neg­li­gent breaches of of­fi­cial duty by per­sons work­ing in civil re­gister of­fices are sub­ject to dis­cip­lin­ary meas­ures taken by the can­ton­al su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity.

² Dis­cip­lin­ary meas­ures shall con­sist of rep­rim­ands, fines of up to CHF 1000 or, in ser­i­ous cases, re­mov­al from of­fice.

³ The right to pro­sec­ute is re­served.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil is­sues the pro­vi­sions on im­ple­ment­a­tion.

² In par­tic­u­lar it reg­u­lates:

1.

the re­gisters to be main­tained and the in­form­a­tion to be re­cor­ded;

2.

the use of the OASI num­ber⁷⁶ in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 50c of the Fed­er­al Act of 20 Decem­ber 1946⁷⁷ on the Old-Age and Sur­viv­ors' In­sur­ance for the pur­pose of elec­tron­ic data ex­change between of­fi­cial re­gisters of per­sons;

3.

the main­ten­ance of the re­gister;

4.

su­per­vi­sion.⁷⁸

³ To en­sure tech­nic­ally re­li­able im­ple­ment­a­tion the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may set min­im­um re­quire­ments for the ba­sic and con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing of per­son­nel in the civil re­gister ser­vice and for the func­tion of re­gis­trar.

⁴ It de­term­ines the fees charged by the civil re­gister ser­vice.

⁵ It de­term­ines the con­di­tions on which it is per­miss­ible by elec­tron­ic means:

1.

to provide civil status in­form­a­tion;

2.

to make de­clar­a­tions con­cern­ing civil status;

3.

to make no­ti­fic­a­tions and provide ex­tracts from the civil re­gister.⁷⁹

¹ The can­tons define the civil re­gister dis­tricts.

² They en­act the pro­vi­sions ne­ces­sary for im­ple­ment­a­tion with­in the frame­work of fed­er­al law.

³ Such can­ton­al pro­vi­sions, with the ex­cep­tion of those con­cern­ing re­mu­ner­a­tion of per­son­nel, are sub­ject to ap­prov­al by the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

Re­pealed

¹ As­so­ci­ations of per­sons or­gan­ised as cor­por­ate bod­ies and in­de­pend­ent bod­ies with a spe­cif­ic pur­pose ac­quire leg­al per­son­al­ity on be­ing entered in the com­mer­cial re­gister.

² Pub­lic law cor­por­a­tions and bod­ies, and as­so­ci­ations that do not have a com­mer­cial pur­pose do not re­quire re­gis­tra­tion.⁸⁰

³ As­so­ci­ations of per­sons and bod­ies which pur­sue an im­mor­al or un­law­ful pur­pose may not ac­quire leg­al per­son­al­ity.

Leg­al en­tit­ies have all the rights and du­ties oth­er than those which pre­sup­pose in­trins­ic­ally hu­man at­trib­utes, such as sex, age or kin­ship.

Leg­al en­tit­ies have ca­pa­city to act once the gov­ern­ing bod­ies re­quired by law and their art­icles of as­so­ci­ation have been ap­poin­ted.

¹ The gov­ern­ing bod­ies ex­press the will of the leg­al en­tity.

² They bind the leg­al en­tity by con­clud­ing trans­ac­tions and by their oth­er ac­tions.

³ The gov­ern­ing of­ficers are also per­son­ally li­able for their wrong­ful acts.

The seat of the leg­al en­tity is loc­ated where its ad­min­is­tra­tion is car­ried out, un­less its art­icles of as­so­ci­ation provide oth­er­wise.

¹ On dis­sol­u­tion of a leg­al en­tity, and un­less provided oth­er­wise by law, the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation, the found­ing charter or the gov­ern­ing bod­ies, its as­sets pass to the state au­thor­ity (Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­ton, com­mune) to which the en­tity had been as­signed ac­cord­ing to its ob­jects.

² Such as­sets must be used as far as pos­sible for the ori­gin­al pur­pose.

³ Where a leg­al en­tity is dis­solved due to its pur­suit of im­mor­al or un­law­ful ob­jects, the as­sets pass to the state au­thor­ity even where con­trary pro­vi­sion has been made.⁸²

The pro­ced­ure for li­quid­at­ing the as­sets of the leg­al en­tity is gov­erned by the reg­u­la­tions for co­oper­at­ives.

¹ Pub­lic and ec­cle­si­ast­ic­al cor­por­a­tions and in­sti­tu­tions are gov­erned by fed­er­al and can­ton­al pub­lic law.

² As­so­ci­ations of per­sons which pur­sue a com­mer­cial pur­pose are sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions on com­pan­ies and co­oper­at­ives.

³ Com­mon land co­oper­at­ives and sim­il­ar bod­ies re­main sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of can­ton­al law.

¹ As­so­ci­ations with a polit­ic­al, re­li­gious, sci­entif­ic, cul­tur­al, char­it­able, so­cial or oth­er non-com­mer­cial pur­pose ac­quire leg­al per­son­al­ity as soon as their in­ten­tion to ex­ist as a cor­por­ate body is ap­par­ent from their art­icles of as­so­ci­ation.

² The art­icles of as­so­ci­ation must be done in writ­ing and in­dic­ate the ob­jects of the as­so­ci­ation, its re­sources and its or­gan­isa­tion.

¹ Once the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation have been rat­i­fied and the com­mit­tee ap­poin­ted, the as­so­ci­ation is eli­gible for entry in the com­mer­cial re­gister.

² The as­so­ci­ation must be re­gistered if it:

1.

con­ducts a com­mer­cial op­er­a­tion in pur­suit of its ob­jects;

2.

is sub­ject to an audit re­quire­ment;

3.⁸⁴

primar­ily col­lects or dis­trib­utes as­sets abroad, dir­ectly or in­dir­ectly, that are in­ten­ded for char­it­able, re­li­gious, cul­tur­al, edu­ca­tion­al or so­cial pur­poses.⁸⁵

^2bis The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions on the re­quire­ment to be entered in the com­mer­cial re­gister.⁸⁶

^2ter It may ex­empt as­so­ci­ations in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 2 num­ber 3 from the re­quire­ment to be re­gistered in par­tic­u­lar if they are ex­posed to a low risk of ab­use for the pur­pose of money laun­der­ing or the fin­an­cing of ter­ror­ism be­cause of the amount, ori­gin, pur­pose or in­ten­ded use of the as­sets col­lec­ted or dis­trib­uted.⁸⁷

³ ...⁸⁸

¹ As­so­ci­ations that must be entered in the com­mer­cial re­gister shall keep a list of their mem­bers, in­clud­ing their first and sur­names, busi­ness names and ad­dresses.

² They shall keep the list so that it may be ac­cessed at any time in Switzer­land.

³ They shall re­tain the de­tails of each mem­ber and any sup­port­ing doc­u­ments for five years after the mem­ber has been re­moved from the list.

As­so­ci­ations which can­not ac­quire or have not yet ac­quired leg­al per­son­al­ity are treated as simple part­ner­ships.

¹ Where the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation do not provide rules for the as­so­ci­ation’s or­gan­isa­tion or its re­la­tion­ship with its mem­bers, the fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions ap­ply.

² Man­dat­ory pro­vi­sions of law can­not be altered by the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation.

¹ The gen­er­al meet­ing of mem­bers is the su­preme gov­ern­ing body of the as­so­ci­ation.

² The gen­er­al meet­ing is called by the com­mit­tee.

³ Gen­er­al meet­ings must be con­vened in ac­cord­ance with the rules set out in the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation and also, as re­quired by law, if one-fifth of the mem­bers so re­quest.

¹ The gen­er­al meet­ing of mem­bers de­cides on ad­mis­sion and ex­clu­sion of mem­bers, ap­points the com­mit­tee and de­cides all mat­ters which are not re­served to oth­er gov­ern­ing bod­ies of the as­so­ci­ation.

² It su­per­vises the activ­it­ies of the gov­ern­ing bod­ies and may at any time dis­miss the lat­ter without pre­ju­dice to any con­trac­tu­al rights of those dis­missed.

³ The right of dis­missal ex­ists by law whenev­er jus­ti­fied by good cause.

¹ Res­ol­u­tions are passed by the gen­er­al meet­ing.

² The writ­ten con­sent of all mem­bers to a pro­pos­al is equi­val­ent to a res­ol­u­tion of the gen­er­al meet­ing.

¹ All mem­bers have equal vot­ing rights at the gen­er­al meet­ing.

² Res­ol­u­tions re­quire a ma­jor­ity of the votes of the mem­bers present.

³ Res­ol­u­tions may be taken on mat­ters for which prop­er no­tice has not been giv­en only where this is ex­pressly per­mit­ted by the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation.

Each mem­ber is by law ex­cluded from vot­ing on any res­ol­u­tion con­cern­ing a trans­ac­tion or dis­pute between him or her, his or her spouse or a lin­eal re­l­at­ive on the one hand and the as­so­ci­ation on the oth­er.

¹ The com­mit­tee is en­titled and ob­liged ac­cord­ing to the powers that it is gran­ted un­der the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation to man­age and rep­res­ent the as­so­ci­ation.

² As­so­ci­ations that must be entered in the com­mer­cial re­gister must be able to be rep­res­en­ted by a per­son who is dom­i­ciled in Switzer­land. This per­son must have ac­cess to the list of mem­bers.⁹¹

The com­mit­tee shall main­tain the as­so­ci­ation’s busi­ness ledgers. The pro­vi­sions of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions⁹³ on com­mer­cial book­keep­ing and ac­count­ing ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

¹ The as­so­ci­ation must sub­mit its ac­counts to a full audit by ex­tern­al aud­it­ors if two of the fol­low­ing fig­ures are ex­ceeded in two suc­cess­ive busi­ness years:

1.

total as­sets of CHF 10 mil­lion;

2.

turnover of CHF 20 mil­lion;

3.

av­er­age an­nu­al total of 50 full-time staff.

²The as­so­ci­ation must sub­mit its ac­counts to a lim­ited audit by ex­tern­al aud­it­ors if a mem­ber with per­son­al li­ab­il­ity or an ob­lig­a­tion to provide fur­ther cap­it­al so re­quests.

³The pro­vi­sions of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions⁹⁵ on ex­tern­al aud­it­ors for com­pan­ies ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

⁴ In all oth­er cases the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation and the gen­er­al meet­ing⁹⁶ are free to make such audit­ing ar­range­ments as they deem fit.

¹ If the as­so­ci­ation lacks one of the pre­scribed gov­ern­ing bod­ies or the list of mem­bers in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 61a or if it is no longer leg­ally dom­i­ciled at its seat, a mem­ber or a cred­it­or may ap­ply to the court for an or­der that the ne­ces­sary meas­ures be taken.⁹⁸

² In par­tic­u­lar, the court may set the as­so­ci­ation a time lim­it in which to re­store the situ­ation re­quired by law and may, if ne­ces­sary, ap­point an ad­min­is­trat­or.

³ The as­so­ci­ation bears the cost of such meas­ures. The court may or­der the as­so­ci­ation to make an ad­vance pay­ment to the per­sons ap­poin­ted.

⁴ For good cause, the as­so­ci­ation may ap­ply to the court for the re­mov­al of the per­sons it ap­poin­ted.

For as­so­ci­ations that re­quire to be entered in the com­mer­cial re­gister, the pro­vi­sions of com­pany law on im­min­ent in­solv­ency and on over­indebted­ness and on the re­valu­ation of land, build­ings and equity par­ti­cip­a­tions ap­ply ac­cord­ingly.

¹ Mem­bers may be ad­mit­ted at any time.

² All mem­bers have a leg­al right to resign sub­ject to six months’ no­tice ex­pir­ing at the end of the cal­en­dar year or, if an ad­min­is­trat­ive peri­od is provided for, at the end of such peri­od.

³ Mem­ber­ship is neither trans­fer­able nor her­it­able.

Mem­bers have a duty to pay sub­scrip­tions if the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation so provide.

¹ The art­icles of as­so­ci­ation may spe­cify the grounds on which a mem­ber may be ex­cluded, but ex­clu­sion may also oc­cur without reas­ons be­ing giv­en.

² In such cases, the ex­clu­sion may not be chal­lenged based on the reas­ons.

³ Un­less the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation provide oth­er­wise, ex­clu­sion re­quires a res­ol­u­tion by the mem­bers and good cause.

¹ Mem­bers who resign or are ex­cluded have no claim on the as­sets of the as­so­ci­ation.

² They are li­able for the sub­scrip­tions due dur­ing the peri­od of their mem­ber­ship.

No mem­ber may be forced against his or her will to ac­cept a change in the ob­jects of the as­so­ci­ation.

Any mem­ber who has not con­sen­ted to a res­ol­u­tion which in­fringes the law or the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation is en­titled by law to chal­lenge such res­ol­u­tion in court with­in one month of learn­ing there­of.

The as­so­ci­ation is li­able for its ob­lig­a­tions with its as­sets. Such li­ab­il­ity is lim­ited to the as­sets un­less the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation provide oth­er­wise.

The as­so­ci­ation may be dis­solved at any time by res­ol­u­tion of the mem­bers.

The as­so­ci­ation is dis­solved by op­er­a­tion of law if it is in­solv­ent or if the com­mit­tee may no longer be ap­poin­ted in ac­cord­ance with the art­icles of as­so­ci­ation.

Where the ob­jects of the as­so­ci­ation are un­law­ful or im­mor­al, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity or an in­ter­ested party may ap­ply for a court or­der of dis­sol­u­tion.

Where the as­so­ci­ation is re­gistered, the com­mit­tee or the court shall in­form the com­mer­cial re­gis­trar of the dis­sol­u­tion so that the entry may be de­leted.

A found­a­tion is es­tab­lished by the en­dow­ment of as­sets for a par­tic­u­lar pur­pose.

¹ A found­a­tion may be cre­ated by pub­lic deed or by test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion.¹⁰²

² The found­a­tion is entered in the com­mer­cial re­gister based on its charter and, as the case may be, in ac­cord­ance with any dir­ec­tions is­sued by the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity, and the entry must in­dic­ate the mem­bers of the board of trust­ees.

³ The pro­bate au­thor­ity shall in­form the com­mer­cial re­gis­trar of the cre­ation of the found­a­tion by test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion.¹⁰³

A found­a­tion may be chal­lenged by the founder’s heirs or cred­it­ors in the same man­ner as a gift.

The found­a­tion charter shall stip­u­late the found­a­tion’s gov­ern­ing bod­ies and the man­ner in which it is to be ad­min­istered.

¹ The su­preme gov­ern­ing body of the found­a­tion shall main­tain its busi­ness ledgers. The provisions of the Code of Obligations¹⁰⁶on commercial bookkeeping and accounting applymutatis mutandis.

¹ The board of trust­ees shall ap­point ex­tern­al aud­it­ors.

² The su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity may ex­empt a found­a­tion from the duty to ap­point ex­tern­al aud­it­ors. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the con­di­tions for such ex­emp­tion.

³ Where there are no spe­cial pro­vi­sions for found­a­tions, the pro­vi­sions of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions¹⁰⁸ on ex­tern­al aud­it­ors for pub­lic lim­ited com­pan­ies ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

⁴If the found­a­tion has a duty to carry out a lim­ited audit, the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity may re­quire a full audit where ne­ces­sary for a re­li­able as­sess­ment of the found­a­tion’s fin­an­cial situ­ation.

The ex­tern­al aud­it­ors must provide the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity with a copy of the audit re­port and all im­port­ant com­mu­nic­a­tions with the found­a­tion.

¹ If the planned sys­tem of or­gan­isa­tion proves in­ad­equate, if the found­a­tion lacks one of the pre­scribed gov­ern­ing bod­ies or one such body is not law­fully con­sti­tuted, or if the found­a­tion is no longer leg­ally dom­i­ciled at its seat, the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity must take the ne­ces­sary meas­ures. In par­tic­u­lar it may:¹¹¹

1.

set a time lim­it with­in which the found­a­tion must re­store the leg­ally re­quired situ­ation; or

2.

ap­point the body which is lack­ing or an ad­min­is­trat­or.

² In the event that the found­a­tion is un­able to or­gan­ise it­self ef­fect­ively, the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity shall trans­fer its as­sets to an­oth­er found­a­tion with as sim­il­ar ob­jects as pos­sible.

³ The found­a­tion bears the cost of such meas­ures. The su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity may re­quire the found­a­tion to make an ad­vance pay­ment to the per­sons ap­poin­ted.

⁴ For good cause, the found­a­tion may re­quest the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity to re­move per­sons whom it has ap­poin­ted.

¹ Found­a­tions are su­per­vised by the state au­thor­ity (Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­ton, com­mune) to which they are as­signed.

^1bis The can­tons may sub­ject found­a­tions at com­mun­al level to su­per­vi­sion at can­ton­al level.¹¹²

² The su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity must en­sure that the found­a­tion’s as­sets are used for their de­clared pur­pose.

¹ In the event of im­min­ent in­solv­ency or over­indebted­ness, the board of trust­ees must no­ti­fy the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity im­me­di­ately.

² If the ex­tern­al aud­it­ors es­tab­lish that the found­a­tion is in­solv­ent or over­indebted, they shall no­ti­fy the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity.

³ The su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity shall dir­ect the board of trust­ees to take the ne­ces­sary meas­ures. If it fails to do so, the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity shall take such meas­ures it­self or shall no­ti­fy the court.

⁴ The provisions of company law on establishing overindebtedness and on the revaluation of land, buildings and equity participations apply accordingly.

The board of trust­ees must sep­ar­ately no­ti­fy the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity an­nu­ally of the total amount of re­mu­ner­a­tion with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 734a para­graph 2 of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions¹¹⁵ that is paid, dir­ectly or in­dir­ectly, to the board of trust­ees and, if ap­plic­able, to the ex­ec­ut­ive board.

At the re­quest of the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity and hav­ing heard the board of trust­ees, the com­pet­ent fed­er­al or can­ton­al au­thor­ity may modi­fy the found­a­tion’s or­gan­isa­tion where such a step is ur­gently re­quired in or­der to pre­serve the found­a­tion’s as­sets or safe­guard the pur­suit of its ob­jects.

¹ At the re­quest of the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity or the board of trust­ees, the com­pet­ent fed­er­al or can­ton­al au­thor­ity may amend the ob­jects of the found­a­tion where the ori­gin­al ob­jects have altered in sig­ni­fic­ance or ef­fect to such an ex­tent that the found­a­tion has plainly be­come es­tranged from the founder’s in­ten­tions.¹¹⁸

² Sub­ject to the same re­quire­ments, con­di­tions that are det­ri­ment­al to the ob­jects of the found­a­tion may be re­voked or amended.

¹ The com­pet­ent fed­er­al or can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall amend the ob­jects of the found­a­tion at the founder’s re­quest or in ac­cord­ance with his or her test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, provided that the charter re­serves the right to amend the ob­jects and that at least ten years have elapsed since the found­a­tion was es­tab­lished or since the last amend­ment re­ques­ted by the founder.

² Where the found­a­tion pur­sues pub­lic or char­it­able ob­jects with­in the mean­ing of Art. 56 lit. g of the Fed­er­al Act of 14 Decem­ber 1990 on Dir­ect Fed­er­al Tax­a­tion¹²⁰, such new ob­jects must like­wise be pub­lic or char­it­able.

³ The right to amend a found­a­tion’s ob­jects is neither trans­fer­able nor her­it­able. If the founder is a leg­al en­tity, the right ex­tin­guishes at the latest 20 years after the es­tab­lish­ment of the found­a­tion.

⁴ Joint founders may only jointly re­quest an amend­ment of the found­a­tion’s ob­jects.

⁵ The pro­bate au­thor­ity shall in­form the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of any test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion con­cern­ing the amend­ment of the found­a­tion’s ob­jects.

Hav­ing heard the board of trust­ees, the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity may make minor amend­ments to the found­a­tion charter provided these are ob­ject­ively jus­ti­fied and do not im­pair the rights of any third party.

¹ Fam­ily and ec­cle­si­ast­ic­al found­a­tions are not sub­ject to su­per­vi­sion, un­less oth­er­wise provided by pub­lic law.

^1bis They are ex­empt from the duty to ap­point ex­tern­al aud­it­ors.¹²²

² Private law dis­putes are de­cided by the courts.

¹ The com­pet­ent fed­er­al or can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall dis­solve the found­a­tion on ap­plic­a­tion or of its own ac­cord if:

1.

its ob­jects have be­come un­at­tain­able and the found­a­tion can­not be main­tained by modi­fy­ing its charter; or

2.

its ob­jects have be­come un­law­ful or im­mor­al.

² Fam­ily and ec­cle­si­ast­ic­al found­a­tions shall be dis­solved by court or­der.

¹ Any in­ter­ested party may file an ap­plic­a­tion or bring an ac­tion for the dis­sol­u­tion of a found­a­tion.

² Dis­sol­u­tion must be re­por­ted to the com­mer­cial re­gis­trar so that the entry may be de­leted.

¹ The fol­low­ing ad­di­tion­al pro­vi­sions ap­ply to em­ploy­ee be­ne­fits schemes es­tab­lished in ac­cord­ance with Art. 331 of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions¹²⁷ in the form of a found­a­tion.¹²⁸

² The found­a­tion’s gov­ern­ing bod­ies must fur­nish the be­ne­fi­ciar­ies with the ne­ces­sary in­form­a­tion con­cern­ing the found­a­tion’s or­gan­isa­tion, activ­it­ies and as­sets.

³ If em­ploy­ees pay con­tri­bu­tions in­to the be­ne­fits scheme, they are en­titled to par­ti­cip­ate in its ad­min­is­tra­tion at least in pro­por­tion to their con­tri­bu­tions; wherever pos­sible, the em­ploy­ees must elect their rep­res­ent­at­ive from among their em­ploy­er’s per­son­nel.¹²⁹

⁴ ...¹³⁰

⁵ The be­ne­fi­ciar­ies may sue the found­a­tion for the dis­tri­bu­tion of be­ne­fits if they have paid con­tri­bu­tions in­to it or if ac­cord­ing to the found­a­tion’s reg­u­la­tions they have a leg­al en­ti­tle­ment to such be­ne­fits.

⁶ For em­ploy­ee be­ne­fits schemes provid­ing old age, sur­viv­ors’ and in­valid­ity pen­sions which are sub­ject to the Ves­ted Be­ne­fits Act of 17 Decem­ber 1993¹³¹ (VBA), the pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 25 June 1982 on Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Old Age, Sur­viv­ors’ and In­valid­ity Pen­sion Pro­vi­sion (OPA)¹³² on the fol­low­ing mat­ters ap­ply:¹³³

1.¹³⁴

the defin­i­tion and prin­ciples of oc­cu­pa­tion­al pen­sion ar­range­ments and the in­sur­able salary or in­come (Art. 1, 33a and 33b);

2.¹³⁵

the re­quire­ment of be­ing sub­ject to OASI (Art. 5 para. 1);

3.

the be­ne­fi­ciar­ies in the case of sur­viv­ors’ be­ne­fits (Art. 20a);

3a.¹³⁶

the ad­just­ment of the in­valid­ity pen­sion fol­low­ing the equit­able di­vi­sion of oc­cu­pa­tion­al pen­sions (Art. 24 para. 5);

3b.¹³⁷

the pro­vi­sion­al con­tinu­ation of in­sur­ance and of the en­ti­tle­ment to be­ne­fits on the re­duc­tion or ter­min­a­tion of the in­valid­ity pen­sion (Art. 26a);

4.¹³⁸

the ad­just­ment of plan be­ne­fits to in­fla­tion (Art. 36 para. 2–4);

4a.¹³⁹ the agree­ment on a lump sum pay­ment (Art. 37a);

4b.¹⁴⁰

the meas­ures in the case of neg­lect of main­ten­ance ob­lig­a­tions (Art. 40);

5.

the pre­scrip­tion of claims and the safe­keep­ing of in­sur­ance doc­u­ments (Art. 41);

5a.¹⁴¹

the use, pro­cessing and dis­clos­ure of the OASI num­ber (Art. 48 para. 4, Art. 85a lit. f and Art. 86apara. 2 lit. b^bis);

6.

li­ab­il­ity (Art. 52);

7.¹⁴²

the li­cens­ing and du­ties of the su­per­vis­ory bod­ies
(Art. 52a–52e);

8.¹⁴³

the in­teg­rity and loy­alty of the per­sons re­spons­ible, trans­ac­tions with close as­so­ci­ates and con­flicts of in­terest
(Art. 51b, 51c and 53a);

9.

par­tial or total li­quid­a­tion (Art. 53b–53d);

10.¹⁴⁴

ter­min­a­tion of con­tracts (Art. 53e);

11.

the guar­an­tee fund (Art. 56 para. 1 lit. c and para. 2–5, Art. 56a, 57 and 59);

12.¹⁴⁵

su­per­vi­sion and over­sight (Art. 61–62a and 64–64c);

13.¹⁴⁶

...

14.¹⁴⁷

fin­an­cial se­cur­ity (Art. 65 para. 1, 3 and 4, Art. 66 para. 4, Art. 67 and Art. 72a–72g);

15.

trans­par­ency (Art. 65a);

16.

re­serves (Art. 65b);

17.

in­sur­ance con­tracts between oc­cu­pa­tion­al be­ne­fits schemes and in­sur­ance in­sti­tu­tions (Art. 68 para. 3 and 4);

18.¹⁴⁸

as­set man­age­ment (Art. 71) and the share­hold­er’s re­quire­ment to vote (Art. 71a and 71b);

19.

leg­al re­course (Art. 73 and 74);

20.

crim­in­al pro­vi­sions (Art. 75–79);

21.

buy-in (Art. 79b);

22.

in­sur­able salary and in­come (Art. 79c);

23.

pro­vi­sion of in­form­a­tion to in­sured per­sons (Art. 86b).¹⁴⁹

⁷ For em­ploy­ee be­ne­fits schemes provid­ing old age, sur­viv­ors’ and in­valid­ity pen­sions but which are not sub­ject to the VBA, such as em­ploy­er-sponsored wel­fare funds with dis­cre­tion­ary be­ne­fits and fin­an­cing found­a­tions, only the fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions of the OPA ap­ply:

1.

the re­quire­ment of be­ing sub­ject to OASI (Art. 5 para. 1);

2.

the use, pro­cessing and dis­clos­ure of the OASI num­ber (Art. 48 para. 4, 85a let. f and 86a para. 2 let. b^bis);

3.

li­ab­il­ity (Art. 52);

4.

the li­cens­ing and du­ties of the aud­it­ors (Art. 52a, 52b and 52cpara. 1 let. a–d and g, 2 and 3);

5.

the in­teg­rity and loy­alty of the per­sons re­spons­ible, trans­ac­tions with close as­so­ci­ates and con­flicts of in­terest (Art. 51b, 51c and 53a);

6.

total li­quid­a­tion (Art. 53c);

7.

su­per­vi­sion and over­sight (Art. 61–62a and 64–64b);

8.

leg­al re­course (Art. 73 and 74);

9.

crim­in­al pro­vi­sions (Art. 75–79);

10.

tax treat­ment (Art. 80, 81 para. 1 and 83).¹⁵⁰

⁸ For em­ploy­ee be­ne­fits schemes un­der para­graph 7, the fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions also ap­ply:

1.

they man­age their as­sets so that se­cur­ity, an ad­equate yield on in­vest­ments and the re­quired li­quid­ity for their tasks are guar­an­teed.

2.

the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity shall rule on par­tial li­quid­a­tion mat­ters re­lated to em­ploy­er-sponsored wel­fare funds with dis­cre­tion­ary be­ne­fits at the re­quest of the found­a­tion board.

3.

they shall re­spect the prin­ciples of equal treat­ment and fair­ness mu­tatis mutandis.¹⁵¹

¹ In the case of a pub­lic col­lec­tion for char­it­able pur­poses, if no ar­range­ments have been made for the man­age­ment or use of the col­lect­ive as­sets, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall take the re­quired meas­ures.

² It may ap­point an ad­min­is­trat­or for the col­lect­ive as­sets or al­loc­ate the as­sets to an as­so­ci­ation or a found­a­tion with ob­jects that are as sim­il­ar as pos­sible.

³ The ad­min­is­trat­or is sub­ject, mu­tatis mutandis, to the reg­u­la­tions on deputy­ships in con­text of adult pro­tec­tion.

¹ The can­ton in which the main part of the col­lect­ive is man­aged has jur­is­dic­tion.

² Un­less the can­ton provides oth­er­wise, the au­thor­ity that su­per­vises the found­a­tions has jur­is­dic­tion.

¹ En­gage­ment is con­sti­tuted by mu­tu­al prom­ises to marry.

² Minors in­cur no ob­lig­a­tion through be­troth­al without the con­sent of their leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive.¹⁵⁵

³ En­gage­ment does not give rise to any ac­tion­able ob­lig­a­tion to marry.

¹ If the en­gage­ment is ended, the en­gaged parties may de­mand the re­turn of gifts made to each oth­er, with the ex­cep­tion of the usu­al oc­ca­sion­al gifts, un­less the en­gage­ment has ended as a res­ult of death.

² Where such gifts are no longer at hand, resti­tu­tion is sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing un­just en­rich­ment.

If one of the en­gaged couple has in good faith in­curred ex­pense in an­ti­cip­a­tion of the mar­riage ce­re­mony and the en­gage­ment is then ended, he or she may claim a reas­on­able con­tri­bu­tion from the oth­er where this is not in­equit­able in the over­all cir­cum­stances.

Claims arising from the en­gage­ment pre­scribe one year from the end­ing of the en­gage­ment.

Mar­riage may be entered in­to by two per­son who have reached 18 years of age and have ca­pa­city of judge­ment.

¹ Mar­riage between lin­eal re­l­at­ives and between sib­lings or half-sib­lings, wheth­er re­lated to each oth­er by par­ent­age or ad­op­tion, is pro­hib­ited.¹⁵⁹

² Ad­op­tion does not re­move the im­ped­i­ment to mar­riage con­sti­tuted by kin­ship between the ad­op­ted child and his is­sue on the one hand and his ad­opt­ive fam­ily on the oth­er.

A per­son wish­ing to marry must prove that any pre­vi­ous mar­riage or any re­gistered part­ner­ship with a third party has been an­nulled or dis­solved.

¹ The wed­ding ce­re­mony takes place in the pres­ence of the civil re­gis­trar after the pre­par­at­ory pro­ced­ure has been taken.

² The en­gaged couple may marry in the civil re­gister dis­trict of their choice.

³ No re­li­gious wed­ding ce­re­mony is per­mit­ted pri­or to the civil ce­re­mony.

¹ The civil re­gis­trar shall not con­sider a re­quest for mar­riage if either of the pro­spect­ive spouses clearly has no in­ten­tion of liv­ing with the oth­er but wishes to cir­cum­vent the pro­vi­sions on the ad­mis­sion and res­id­ence of for­eign na­tion­als.

² The civil re­gis­trar shall grant a hear­ing to the pro­spect­ive spouses and may ob­tain in­form­a­tion from oth­er au­thor­it­ies or third parties.

¹ The pre­par­at­ory pro­ced­ure shall be car­ried out at the civil re­gister of­fice at the dom­i­cile of either of the pro­spect­ive spouses at their re­quest.¹⁶²

² They must ap­pear in per­son. If they may show that they clearly can­not be re­quired to do so, the pre­par­at­ory pro­ced­ure may be car­ried out in writ­ing.

³They must fur­nish doc­u­ment­ary proof of iden­tity and per­son­ally de­clare at the civil re­gister of­fice that they sat­is­fy the leg­al re­quire­ments for mar­riage; they must also pro­duce any ne­ces­sary con­sent.

⁴ En­gaged couples who are not Swiss cit­izens must prove dur­ing the pre­par­at­ory pro­ced­ure that they are law­fully res­id­ent in Switzer­land.¹⁶³

¹ The civil re­gister of­fice veri­fies that:

1.

the re­quest has been duly sub­mit­ted;

2.

the iden­tity of the en­gaged couple has been es­tab­lished; and

3.¹⁶⁴

the re­quire­ments for mar­riage are sat­is­fied, and in par­tic­u­lar wheth­er there are any cir­cum­stances that sug­gest that the re­quest clearly does not re­flect the free will of the en­gaged couple.

² Provided these re­quire­ments are ful­filled, the civil re­gister of­fice shall in­form the be­trothed parties that the pre­par­at­ory pro­ced­ure has been com­pleted and of the leg­ally pre­scribed time lim­its for hold­ing the wed­ding ce­re­mony.¹⁶⁵

³ After con­sult­ing the en­gaged couple and in con­form­ity with can­ton­al reg­u­la­tions, the civil re­gister of­fice sets the date of the wed­ding ce­re­mony or, upon re­quest, au­thor­ises that it may be con­duc­ted in an­oth­er civil re­gister dis­trict.

⁴ The civil re­gister of­fice must in­form the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of the iden­tity of any en­gaged couple who have not proven that they are law­fully res­id­ent in Switzer­land.¹⁶⁶

The wed­ding ce­re­mony may take place with­in three months fol­low­ing no­ti­fic­a­tion of com­ple­tion of the pre­par­at­ory pro­ced­ure.

¹ The wed­ding ce­re­mony takes place at the wed­ding ven­ue of the civil re­gister dis­trict chosen by the en­gaged couple.

² Where the pre­par­at­ory pro­ced­ure was con­duc­ted in a dif­fer­ent civil re­gister dis­trict, the en­gaged couple must pro­duce a mar­riage li­cence.

³ If the en­gaged couple show that they can­not reas­on­ably be re­quired to ap­pear at the of­fi­cial ven­ue, the wed­ding may take place at an­oth­er loc­a­tion.

¹ A wed­ding is a pub­lic ce­re­mony that takes place in the pres­ence of two adult wit­nesses who are cap­able of judge­ment.¹⁶⁸

² The civil re­gis­trar asks the pro­spect­ive spouses in­di­vidu­ally wheth­er each wishes to marry the oth­er.¹⁶⁹

³ If both an­swer in the af­firm­at­ive, they are pro­nounced mar­ried by mu­tu­al con­sent.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil and, with­in the scope of their powers, the can­tons shall en­act the ne­ces­sary im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

A mar­riage con­trac­ted be­fore a civil re­gis­trar may be an­nulled only on one of the grounds provided in this chapter.

Grounds for an­nul­ment are:

1.¹⁷⁰

that one of the spouses was already mar­ried or liv­ing in a re­gistered part­ner­ship with a third party at the time of the wed­ding and the pre­vi­ous mar­riage or re­gistered part­ner­ship has not been dis­solved;

2.

that one of the spouses lacked ca­pa­city of judge­ment at the time of the wed­ding and has not re­gained such ca­pa­city since;

3.¹⁷¹

that the mar­riage was pro­hib­ited due to kin­ship;

4.¹⁷²

one of the spouses has no in­ten­tion of liv­ing with the oth­er, but wishes to cir­cum­vent the pro­vi­sions on the ad­mis­sion and res­id­ence of for­eign na­tion­als;

5.¹⁷³

a spouse has not mar­ried of his or her own free will;

6.¹⁷⁴

one of the spouses is a minor, un­less the con­tinu­ation of the mar­riage is in the over­rid­ing in­terest of this spouse.

¹ An ac­tion for an­nul­ment is brought ex of­fi­cio by the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity at the dom­i­cile of the spouses; in ad­di­tion, any in­ter­ested party is en­titled to bring such ac­tion. Provided this is com­pat­ible with their du­ties, the fed­er­al and can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies shall con­tact the au­thor­ity com­pet­ent for the ac­tion if they have reas­on to be­lieve that there are grounds for an­nul­ment.¹⁷⁵

² If the mar­riage has been oth­er­wise dis­solved, the au­thor­ity may no longer seek an an­nul­ment ex of­fi­cio; however, any in­ter­ested party may seek a de­clar­a­tion of an­nul­ment.

³ An ac­tion for an­nul­ment may be brought at any time.

A spouse may seek a de­clar­a­tion of an­nul­ment if he or she:

1.

tem­por­ar­ily lacked ca­pa­city of judge­ment at the time of the wed­ding;

2.

mar­ried in er­ror, wheth­er be­cause he or she did not wish to marry at all or did not wish to marry the oth­er per­son;

3.

con­trac­ted the mar­riage be­cause he or she was in­ten­tion­ally de­ceived with re­gard to es­sen­tial per­son­al at­trib­utes of the oth­er spouse;

4.¹⁷⁶

...

¹ An ac­tion for an­nul­ment must be brought with­in six months of learn­ing of the grounds for an­nul­ment or of the date on which the threat ceased, but in any event with­in five years of the wed­ding.

² The right to bring an ac­tion for an­nul­ment does not pass to heirs; however, an heir may con­tin­ue an ac­tion already brought.

¹ A mar­riage does not be­come in­val­id un­til a court has de­clared it an­nulled; pri­or to such judg­ment it has all the ef­fects of a val­id mar­riage with the ex­cep­tion of claims un­der in­her­it­ance law, which in any event the sur­viv­ing spouse loses.

² The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing di­vorce ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to the ef­fects of a court de­clar­a­tion of an­nul­ment on the spouses and their chil­dren.

³ The pre­sump­tion of pa­tern­ity in fa­vour of the hus­band does not ap­ply if the mar­riage is an­nulled be­cause it served to cir­cum­vent the pro­vi­sions on the ad­mis­sion and res­id­ence of for­eign na­tion­als.¹⁷⁷

¹ Where the spouses jointly re­quest di­vorce and sub­mit a com­pre­hens­ive agree­ment on the con­sequences of the di­vorce along with any ne­ces­sary doc­u­ments and with joint ap­plic­a­tions in re­spect of the chil­dren, the court shall hear the spouses both sep­ar­ately and to­geth­er. The hear­ing may com­prise two or more ses­sions.

² If the court is per­suaded that de­sire for di­vorce and the agree­ment are the product of free will and care­ful re­flec­tion and that the agree­ment with the ap­plic­a­tions in re­spect of the chil­dren may be ap­proved, the court shall is­sue the di­vorce de­cree.

¹ The spouses may jointly re­quest di­vorce and ask the court to de­cide mat­ters on which they can­not reach agree­ment.

² As in the case of com­pre­hens­ive agree­ment, the court shall hear the parties on those con­sequences of the di­vorce on which they have reached agree­ment and on their re­quest that the re­main­ing con­sequences be de­cided by the court.

³ ...¹⁸¹

A spouse may pe­ti­tion for di­vorce if, at the time the pe­ti­tion is filed or at the time the di­vorce re­quest is re­placed by a di­vorce pe­ti­tion, the spouses have lived apart for at least two years.

Pri­or to the ex­piry of the two-year peri­od, a spouse may pe­ti­tion for di­vorce if the mar­riage has ir­re­triev­ably broken down for com­pel­ling reas­ons for which he or she is not re­spons­ible.