Book I: Individuals

Civil status records are drawn up on paper and are entered, in each municipality, in one or more registers kept in duplicate. When they have implemented automated processing of civil status data, the municipalities ensure that the conditions of security and integrity are met. The technical characteristics of the processing implemented to store these data are set by decree in the Conseil d’Etat. By way of derogation from the first…

Where no registers have existed, or where they have been lost, proof shall be received both by titles and by witnesses; and, in such cases, marriages, births and deaths may be proved both by the registers and papers emanating from deceased fathers and mothers, and by witnesses. Until the reconstitution or restitution of the registers has been effected, all civil status records, the originals of which have been destroyed or…

Any civil status record of French nationals and foreigners made in a foreign country and drawn up in the forms customary in that country is authentic, unless other records or documents held, external data or elements drawn from the record itself establish, where applicable after all useful checks, that this record is irregular, falsified or that the facts declared therein do not correspond to reality. This is assessed in the…

Any civil status record of French nationals in a foreign country will be valid if it has been received, in accordance with French law, by diplomatic or consular agents. The civil status data is kept by automated processing satisfying the conditions laid down in Article 40 and implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which may issue copies and extracts.

In all cases where the mention of an act relating to civil status is to be made in the margin of an act already recorded, it will be made ex officio. The civil registrar who has drawn up or transcribed the act giving rise to the mention will make this mention, within three days, in the registers held by him, and, if the duplicate of the register in which the…

Any contravention of the foregoing articles, on the part of the officials named therein, will be prosecuted before the judicial court, and punishable by a fine of 3 to 30 euros.

Any custodian of the registers shall be civilly liable for any alterations thereto, subject to his recourse, if any, against the authors of the said alterations.

Any alteration, any forgery in civil status records, any registration of these records made on a loose leaf and otherwise than on the registers for this purpose, will give rise to damages from the parties, without prejudice to the penalties laid down in the Penal Code.

The public prosecutor with territorial jurisdiction may at any time verify the state of the registers; he or she will draw up a summary report of the verification, denounce any contraventions or offences committed by civil registrars, and request that they be fined.

In all cases where a court of law deals with acts relating to civil status, the interested parties may appeal against the judgment.