HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 19 (ACN) The draft of the Family Code in its 24th version is focused on family law, but it also trickles down to other fields, such as inheritance law, according to Doctor of Science Leonardo Perez Gallardo, Professor of Civil Law at the University of Havana.
Dr. Pérez Gallardo explained that the Family Code, in force since 1975, predates the current Civil Code (1987), and both are out of touch with the Cuban reality.
“The former fails to address families that enjoy social recognition today, whereas the latter provides no solution to their inheritance claims,” he underlined. “Therefore, the new Code can only be implemented if we modify certain aspects of inheritance law, because there are no plans yet for a reform of the Civil Code. It would be like submitting the Civil Code to minimally invasive surgery so as to make it coherent with the legislation.”
As new family models emerge, he stressed, so will the inheritance rights of relatives others than next of kin be recognized, for instance, the survivor of a common-law relationship will be able to inherit from the deceased, an uncle from a nephew, etc., among other modifications.
Likewise, the Code will amend a person’s capacity to inherit in cases involving offense, grievance or acts contrary to the dignity of the author of the inheritance, mostly related to domestic violence, be it based on gender, physical, emotional or psychological. That is, the inheritance law will have provisions regarding individual behavior.
The popular consultation of the Family Code will take place from February 1 to April 30 before the proposals are submitted to the National Assembly of People’s Power for analysis and the final text is the object of a referendum.
