The current Portuguese Civil Code ( pt, Código Civil) was approved on 26 November 1966 and entered into force on 1 June 1967. It replaced the previous Portuguese Civil Code of 1868. Its text was prepared by a Commission of Professors of Law which in its final phase was presided and substantially changed by Professor Antunes Varela, which is why it is often referred to as "Varela's Civil Code" as opposed to "Seabra's Civil Code", the previous Civil Code of Portugal which preparation commission was presided over by the Viscount of Seabra and entered into force precisely one century before the new code was enacted in 1967. However, due to Professor Vaz Serra's important contributions, the Portuguese Civil Code is often also referred to as "Vaz Serra's Civil Code", specially by authors from the Faculty of Law of the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, th ...

Structure

The Code adopted the German classification of areas of Civil Law, following the BGB, and is divided into 5 main parts (or "books"): # the General Part (''Parte Geral''), Sections 1 through 396, comprising regulations that have effect on all the other four parts and on

Private Law Private law is that part of a civil law legal system which is part of the '' jus commune'' that involves relationships between individuals, such as the law of contracts and torts (as it is called in the common law), and the law of obligations ...

in general, such as

sources of law Sources of law are the origins of laws, the binding rules that enable any state to govern its territory. The term "source of law" may sometimes refer to the sovereign or to the seat of power from which the law derives its validity. Jurispruden ...

legal interpretation Judicial interpretation is the way in which the judiciary construes the law, particularly constitutional documents, legislation and frequently used vocabulary. This is an important issue in some common law jurisdictions such as the United Stat ...

personhood Personhood or personality is the status of being a person. Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law and is closely tied with legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. According to law, only a l ...

legal capacity Legal capacity is a quality denoting either the legal aptitude of a person to have rights and liabilities (in this sense also called transaction capacity), or altogether the personhood itself in regard to an entity other than a natural person ( ...

emancipation of minors Emancipation of minors is a legal mechanism by which a minor before attaining the age of majority is freed from control by their parents or guardians, and the parents or guardians are freed from responsibility for their child. Minors are norm ...

, declarations of will, rescission, formation of contracts,

limitation period A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...

s, and

agency Agency may refer to: Organizations * Institution, governmental or others ** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients ** Employment agency, a business that ...

. #

Law of Obligations The law of obligations is one branch of private law under the civil law legal system and so-called "mixed" legal systems. It is the body of rules that organizes and regulates the rights and duties arising between individuals. The specific rights ...

(''Direito das Obrigações''), Sections 397 through 1250, describing contractual obligations and all other sources of civil obligations, including

torts A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishab ...

unjust enrichment In laws of equity, unjust enrichment occurs when one person is enriched at the expense of another in circumstances that the law sees as unjust. Where an individual is unjustly enriched, the law imposes an obligation upon the recipient to make re ...

and ''

negotiorum gestio ''Negotiorum gestio'' (, Latin for "management of business") is a form of spontaneous voluntary agency in which an intervenor or intermeddler, the ''gestor'', acts on behalf and for the benefit of a principal (''dominus negotii''), but without th ...

''. #

Property Law Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property (land) and personal property. Property refers to legally protected claims to resources, such as land and personal property, including intellectual pro ...

(''Direito das Coisas''), Sections 1251 through 1575, describing possession,

ownership Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...

, other property rights (e.g. servitudes), and how those rights can be transferred. #

Family Law Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations. Overview Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include: * Marriage ...

(''Direito da Família''), Sections 1576 through 2023, describing

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

, marital property schemes,

legal guardianship A legal guardian is a person who has been appointed by a court or otherwise has the legal authority (and the corresponding duty) to make decisions relevant to the personal and property interests of another person who is deemed incompetent, cal ...

, and other legal relationships among family members. #

Inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Of ...

Law (''Direito das Sucessões''), Sections 2024 through 2334, which regulates what happens to a deceased's estate, as well as the law of wills and contracts concerning succession (''pacta successoria''). The Civil Code was subjected to many revisions and changes both in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

as well as in some of its former overseas possessions where it still is in force, but the main structure and concepts of it remain untouched since 1867.

The Macau Civil Code of 1999

In the former Portuguese possession of

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

, handover to China in 1999, a new Civil Code was approved in 1999. The Macau Civil Code is direct descendant of the Portuguese Code, as it follows the same structure, but with several developments, changes, simplifications and additions.

Bibliography

* CARLOS FERREIRA DE ALMEIDA, ASSUNÇÃO CRISTAS and NUNO PIÇARRA (eds.), Portuguese law. An overview, Almedina, Coimbra, 2007. * JORGE GODINHO, Macau business law and legal system, LexisNexis, Hong Kong, 2007. * JORGE GODINHO, The Macau Civil Code. A partial English translatio

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Codigo Civil

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Law of Portugal 1967 in law Legal codes of Portugal

Structure

The Macau Civil Code of 1999

Bibliography

See also

References