Book I: Individuals

The public prosecutor, in all cases to which article 184, may and must request the nullity of the marriage, during the lifetime of both spouses, and have them ordered to separate.

Any marriage which has not been contracted publicly, and which has not been celebrated before the competent public officer, may be contested, within a period of thirty years from its celebration, by the spouses themselves, by the father and mother, by the ascendants and by all those who have a born and present interest therein, as well as by the public prosecutor.

If the marriage has not been preceded by the required publication or if the dispensations permitted by law have not been obtained, or if the prescribed intervals between the publications and the celebration have not been observed, the public prosecutor will have a fine imposed on the public official which may not exceed 4.5 euros and on the contracting parties, or those under whose power they have acted, a fine…

The penalties imposed by the preceding article will be incurred by the persons designated therein, for any contravention of the rules prescribed by article 165, even if such contraventions are not deemed sufficient to render the marriage null and void.

No one may claim the title of spouse and the civil effects of marriage unless he or she represents an act of celebration recorded in the civil status register; except in the cases provided for in Article 46, under Civil status records.

Possession of status may not exempt the alleged spouses who invoke it, respectively, from representing the act of celebration of the marriage before the civil registrar.

Where there is possession of status, and the act of celebration of the marriage before the civil registrar is represented, the spouses are respectively inadmissible to request the nullity of this act.

If, however, in the case of articles 194 and 195, there are children from two individuals who have lived publicly as husband and wife, and who are both deceased, the legitimacy of the children cannot be contested on the sole pretext of the lack of representation in the act of celebration, whenever this legitimacy is proven by possession of status which is not contradicted by the act of birth.

Where proof of a legal celebration of the marriage is acquired by the result of criminal proceedings, the entry of the judgment in the civil status registers ensures that the marriage has full civil effects from the day of its celebration, both in respect of the spouses and in respect of the children of the marriage.

If the spouses or one of them has died without discovering the fraud, the criminal action may be brought by all those who have an interest in having the marriage declared valid, and by the public prosecutor.