What does objective law govern in society?
Compulsory rules governing relationships between people.
What are subjective rights recognized as?
Prerogatives to individuals or groups invoked against others with public-authority protection.
What does public law govern?
Relationships involving public persons and the organization of the State and public authorities.
What does private law govern?
Relationships between private persons, including individuals and legal entities.
What is civil law?
The common law applicable to all private persons except where special branches govern.
What is the law of persons concerned with?
Persons in the legal sense, including identification and protection of vulnerable persons.
What is legal personality in law?
The capacity to hold rights and be bound by obligations.
What differentiates a legal subject from a legal object?
A legal subject holds rights and obligations, a legal object is something over which rights may be exercised.
Which entities are considered legal objects rather than legal subjects?
Animals and things.
What is a natural person in legal terms?
A human being.
What defines a legal person in law?
A group of individuals recognized by law as having a personality distinct from its members.
Within how many days must a birth be declared at the town hall?
Within five days.
What does the civil-status officer include on a birth certificate?
The child's name, given name, sex, date of birth, and parents.
When is legal personality acquired by a child?
Only when the child is born alive and viable.
What does viability mean for acquiring legal personality?
The child breathes and has organs necessary for life.
What certificates does a child born alive but dying before registration receive?
A birth certificate and a death certificate.
What legal status does a child not born alive and viable have?
No legal personality is acquired.
What can parents request for a child born without life under Article 79-1?
An act of a child born without life, a given name, and a family record book.
What does the infans conceptus principle state about a merely conceived child?
It treats the child as already born if it benefits the child and the child is later born alive and viable.
What condition must be met for the infans conceptus principle to apply?
The child must have been conceived when the relevant event occurred.
When does legal personality end according to French law?
With biological death.
Since when has civil death ceased to exist in French law?
Since 1804.
What clinical signs allow establishing death with cardiac and respiratory arrest?
Total absence of consciousness and spontaneous motor activity, abolition of all brain-stem reflexes, and absence of spontaneous breathing.
Who draws up the death certificate in France?
The civil-status officer.
What legal consequences follow the recording of death on a birth certificate?
Opening the succession and ending the marriage.
What does Article 16-1-1 of the Civil Code require regarding human remains?
They must be treated with respect, dignity, and decency.
What distinguishes absence from disappearance legally?
Absence lacks life-threatening circumstances and an unrecovered body, unlike disappearance.
What can the guardianship judge do during presumption-of-absence?
Organize representation and management of the absent person's property without sufficient power of attorney.
When can absence be declared if a judgment exists?
After ten years from the judgment establishing presumed absence.
When can absence be declared without a judgment?
After twenty years from the last news.
What legal effects does the declaratory judgment of absence have?
It is equivalent to a death certificate, opens succession, ends property management measures, and allows remarriage.
Under what conditions can disappearance be judicially declared?
When a French person disappears in life-endangering circumstances and the body is not found.
What legal effect does the judgment declaring disappearance have?
It has the effects of a death certificate.
What is filiation in legal terms?
The legal relationship linking a child to one or more parents.
How is maternal filiation established in the birth certificate?
By identifying the mother in the child’s birth certificate.
How is paternal filiation established within marriage?
By the presumption of paternity within marriage.
What family name options do parents have when filiation is with both parents?
They may choose the father’s name, the mother’s name, or both in any order, up to two names.
What name does a child take without a joint declaration if both filiations are established simultaneously?
The father’s name.
What happens if parents disagree on the child's name without a joint declaration?
The child gets both names in alphabetical order.
What does a family-name change by decree require?
A legitimate interest.
Who decides a family-name change by decree?
The Minister of Justice.
What does the simplified family-name procedure allow a major to do?
Choose the untransmitted parent's name without proving a legitimate interest.
When was the simplified family-name procedure introduced?
By the law of 2 March 2022.
Who can request a family-name change under the simplified procedure?
Each major person.
How many times can a major request a family-name change under the simplified procedure?
Once during their lifetime.
Through whom is the simplified family-name change requested?
The civil-status officer.
Under what conditions can usurpation of a name be challenged in civil life?
When it creates an infringement under civil liability and privacy rules.
What distinguishes a family name from a usage name?
The family name is compulsory and transmissible; the usage name is optional and non-transmissible.
How can a spouse legally use the other spouse’s family name during marriage?
By substitution or addition of the other spouse’s family name.
What ends a spouse’s use of the other’s family name after divorce?
Divorce normally ends that use unless agreed by the other spouse or authorized by a judge.
What does the given name distinguish within a family?
A person.
When is the given name assigned to a person?
At birth in the birth certificate.
How can a person legally change their given name?
Through an amendment of the birth certificate within the legal framework.
Since when can either spouse use the other's name in marriage?
Since the law of 17 May 2013 opened marriage to same-sex couples.
Under which article can spouses use each other's names?
Article 225-1 of the Civil Code.
What happens to the right to use the other's name after divorce?
Each spouse normally loses the right to use the other spouse’s name.
Which article covers loss of name use after divorce?
Article 264 of the Civil Code.
When may a divorced spouse keep using the other's name?
With that spouse’s agreement or judicial authorization when a particular interest is established.
What must be established for judicial authorization to keep using the other's name?
A particular interest for the spouse or the children.
What does Article 311-24-2 allow every adult regarding their parent's name?
To use the name of the parent who did not transmit a name by addition, substitution, or inversion.
Who can implement the use of the other parent's name for a minor?
The parents exercising parental authority or the parent who exercises it alone.
What can a parent who did not transmit their name do when parental authority is joint?
Add their name to the minor’s name without prior agreement from the other parent.
What condition must be met when a parent adds their name to a minor's name under joint parental authority?
The other parent must be informed in due time.
What recourse does the other parent have if they disagree with the name addition under joint parental authority?
They may refer the disagreement to the family judge.
What does Article 515-14 of the Civil Code recognize about animals since 2015?
Animals are living beings endowed with sensitivity.
Are animals legally considered persons according to Article 515-14?
No, they remain legally distinct from persons.
What pregnancy duration does the WHO use as a viability criterion?
22 weeks of pregnancy.
Is the WHO viability threshold fixed by French law?
No, it is not fixed by French law.
Since when can a family name be given to a child born without life without established filiation?
Since 6 December 2021.
What are the authorized burial methods in France?
Burial and cremation.
What is the usual time frame for burial or cremation after death in France?
Between 24 hours and 14 days, excluding Sundays and public holidays.
What name does a child take when filiation is established with only one parent?
The name of that parent.
What name does a child receive when no filiation is established?
Three given names, with the third as the family name.
What are examples of legitimate interest for a family-name change?
A ridiculous name, an affective reason, or avoiding extinction of an ancestor's or collateral relative's name up to the fourth degree.
When can use of a name in commercial activity be legally challenged?
When it causes confusion and harms reputation or an existing commercial name.
Who may use the parent's name not originally transmitted to a major person?
A major person may use the parent's name by addition, substitution, or inversion.
Who can implement name use changes for a minor and under what condition?
A parent exercising parental authority can implement it, subject to judicial review if disputed.
When was Article 311-24-2 created and family name rules modified?
On 2 March 2022.
In which year and under whom was slavery abolished?
In 1848 under Bonaparte.
Answer 51 questions on Law of Persons.
1. Which statement correctly distinguishes objective law from subjective rights?
2. Which legal classification governs a dispute between a municipality and a private company over a public-service contract?
Go over the full study guide for Law of Persons.
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