Legal Emancipation and Disability Under Civil Law

Emancipation: Conditions and Procedures

Emancipation may be granted by marriage, by parental consent, or by judicial request for those over 16 years of age. This applies when parents are in circumstances provided in Article 320 of the Civil Code or when the minor seeks to exit guardianship, as referred to in Article 319.

Judicial Granting of Emancipation

The Civil Code allows children who have attained the age of sixteen to petition the judge for emancipation if they are subject to custody or guardianship. For minors under guardianship, the Civil Code does not require supplementary budgets if the application is well-founded.

When children are subject to parental authority, judicial emancipation requires the existence of specific factual circumstances under Article 320:

• 1. The parent exercising parental authority remarries or cohabits with someone other than the other parent.
• 2. The parents live separately.
• 3. The exercise of parental authority is seriously hampered, often pointing to situations preceding a marital crisis.

Concept and Causes of Disability

Article 200 of the Civil Code stipulates that unemancipated minors and individuals facing circumstances of such gravity that they are deprived of the ability to act are subject to guardianship. These "causes of disability" are legally assessed and constitute a numerus clausus:

1. Madness or dementia.
2. Deaf-mutism, accompanied by an inability to read or write.
3. Prodigality.
4. Absolute isolation resulting from civil interdiction (certain criminal convictions have since been abolished).

Depriving a person of their capacity to act necessitates the establishment of a channel for representation and defense.

Prodigality

Prodigality is defined as personal conduct characterized by the habitual, disorderly waste of one's property. While it is not a cause of total incapacitation, the law limits the ability to claim it:

• The spouse, descendants, or ascendants who depend economically on the alleged prodigal for their subsistence may initiate a trial.
• Legal representatives of the aforementioned parties may also file a claim.
• If the legal representatives do not act, the prosecution may intervene.