Legal advice to individuals

Civil Law is responsible for regulating practically all aspects of a person's life, among them:

  • The different ways of acquiring or losing Spanish nationality.
  • Who is considered a natural person (anyone born with more than 24 hours of life outside the mother's womb) or a legal person.
  • Marriage, requirements, forms of its dissolution and effects
  • Filiation and paternal-filial relations
  • Incapacitation
  • Declaration of absence and death

Matrimonial Law

Articles 42 to 107 of the Civil Code regulate the requirements and effects of marriage and its dissolution.

Marriage is the regulated conjugal union between two people, whether they are of the same or different sex, and it is essential that they are of legal age or emancipated minors.

The forms of marriage in Spain are civil and religious, the latter being admitted as valid by the Spanish State and must, in any case, be monogamous.

The obligations of the spouses, regulated by Article 68 of the Civil Code, are cohabitation, fidelity and mutual support, and they must also share domestic responsibilities and the care and attention of ascendants and descendants and other dependents.

Of Persons

The forms of dissolution of marriage are:

Inheritance Law

The Civil Code provides that one of the ways of acquiring property is mortis causa, i.e. through the inheritance of a deceased or deceased person.

Articles 744 to 1087 are in charge of regulating the different ways of acquiring property, rights and duties through ownership.

Basic concepts should be known, such as:

  • Testament: The testament is the testimony or declaration of will, in any case of a free and voluntary nature, made by a person who, in anticipation of his future death, establishes how he wishes his assets and rights to be distributed when he dies, always within the limits established by the Civil Code.
    The will must take into account that a person's inheritance should theoretically be divided into three parts, namely:
    • Legitimate: According to article 806 of the Civil Code, "legitimate is the portion of property that the testator cannot dispose of because the law has reserved it for certain heirs, called forced heirs".
      Thus, and according to Article 807, "the children and descendants with respect to their parents and ascendants; in the absence of the above, the parents and ascendants with respect to their children and descendants; the widow or widower in the manner and to the extent established in this Code" shall be considered as forced heirs.
    • Improvement: Article 823 of the Civil Code provides that "the father or the mother may dispose, by way of improvement, in favour of one or some of their children or descendants, whether by nature or by adoption, of one of the two thirds destined for the legitimate portion".
    • Free disposition: According to article 808 of the Civil Code, in fine "the remaining third part shall be freely disposable".
  • Legacy: A legacy is a private provision left in a will, by which the testator disposes of one or more specific assets or rights, which he hands over to the legatee after his death.

See our section on Inheritance Law for more information.

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