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Chapter II: Parental authority over the child's property

Article 382 of the French Civil Code

Legal administration is the responsibility of the parents. If parental authority is exercised jointly by both parents, each parent is the legal administrator. In other cases, legal administration belongs to whichever of the parents exercises parental authority.

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Article 382-1 of the French Civil Code

Where legal administration is exercised jointly by the two parents, each of them is deemed, with regard to third parties, to have received from the other the power to carry out alone acts of administration relating to the minor’s property. The list of acts that are considered to be acts of administration is defined under the conditions of article 496.

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Article 383 of the French Civil Code

Where the interests of the sole legal administrator or, as the case may be, of both legal administrators are in opposition to those of the minor, the latter shall request the appointment of an ad hoc administrator by the guardianship judge. Failing diligence on the part of the legal administrators, the judge may make this appointment at the request of the public prosecutor, the minor himself or of his own…

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Article 384 of the French Civil Code

Property given or bequeathed to the minor on condition that it is administered by a third party is not subject to legal administration. The third party administrator has the powers conferred on him by the gift, the will or, failing that, those of a legal administrator. When the third-party administrator refuses this function or is in one of the situations provided for in articles 395 and 396, the guardianship judge…

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Article 386 of the French Civil Code

The legal administrator is liable for any damage resulting from any fault he or she commits in the management of the minor’s property. If legal administration is exercised jointly, both parents are jointly and severally liable. The State is liable for any damage that may be caused by the guardianship judge and the director of the judicial registry services of the judicial court in the performance of their duties in…

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Article 386-2 of the French Civil Code

The right of enjoyment ceases: 1° As soon as the child has completed sixteen years of age or even earlier when he contracts marriage; 2° By causes which terminate parental authority or by those which terminate legal administration; 3° By causes which entail the extinction of any usufruct.

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Article 386-3 of the French Civil Code

The charges for this enjoyment are: 1° Those to which usufructuaries are liable; 2° The child’s food, maintenance and education, according to his wealth; 3° The debts encumbering the estate received by the child insofar as they should have been paid out of the income.

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Article 386-4 of the French Civil Code

Legal enjoyment does not extend to property: 1° Which the child may acquire through his work; 2° Which is given or bequeathed to him under the express condition that the parents will not enjoy it; 3° Which he receives by way of compensation for extrapatrimonial prejudice of which he has been the victim.

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