EXTINCTION OF LEGAL PERSONALITY BY DEATH OR DISAPPEARANCE
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Legal personality, death, disappearance, absence, French Civil Code, declaratory judgment, presumed death, succession, marriage dissolution
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Abstract
This document discusses the legal status of individuals in cases of death or disappearance, and the conditions under which legal personality is extinguished.
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[...] Also, there may be doubt about the death of a person who has not been heard from for years. In this case, the procedure of absence will be applied. The death of a human being is by default considered as the end of their legal personality. Every individual has their legal personality until their death and no one can take this personality. Regarding death, there is no definition given by the legislator to this day, as it lacks expertise in this field. [...]
[...] The consequences of death The deceased person's remains are not considered an object, but it is not a person either. Article 225-7 of the Penal Code states: 'Any damage to the integrity of a corpse by any means is punishable by one year's imprisonment and a fine of fifteen thousand euros.' We must respect the human remains and we cannot treat them in any way. We cannot exhume a body at our will. We cannot use a corpse as a medical experimentation object except in certain regulated cases (e.g. [...]
[...] It was not necessary to wait for a clinical death for this personality to be taken away. At that time, we spoke of legal death by alienation. This was the case of slaves who, although being persons in the physical sense, saw their legal personality taken away from them. With the evolution of history, particularly with the abolition of the slave trade led by Victor Schoelcher, this other way of losing the quality of being a subject of law outside of clinical death was relegated. [...]
[...] Death is then less evident to determine and the individual concerned finds themselves under specific legal statuses that do not necessarily end their legal personality. Thus, the question arises as to what is the legal status of the individual after death or in the case of presumed death? First, we will focus on the legal status in the case of the person's death, and then, in a second time, we will focus on their legal status in the case of their absence and disappearance, (II). I. [...]
[...] Prolonged absence and disappearance are also cases of loss of legal personality. A. Absence as a cause of extinction of legal personality The regime of absence is provided for in [...]
