REVISIÓN CRÍTICA DE LA RESERVA VIDUAL EN EL DERECHO CIVIL FORAL: ANÁLISIS PARTICULAR DE LA RESERVA BINUPCIAL EN EL DERECHO Y JURISPRUDENCIA CATALANA HASTA SU DEFINITIVA DEROGACIÓN LEGISLATIVA.

Abstract

Common and special regional civil law have a long historical tradition of restraining the alienation of property inherited by a widow or widower so as not to undermine the rights of children born of the widow or widower and the deceased. In particular, the Civil Code regulates such restraints in articles 968 to 980, creating a system of rules that restricts the freedom to dispose of certain property; legislators presumed that it would be the wishes of the deceased for certain property to remain with its bloodline of provenance in the event the widow or widower remarries. In the case of Catalonia, after lengthy parliamentary debate, legislators definitively repealed such restraints, and therefore all mention of them has been removed from the Fourth Book on Successions. Foremost among the elements that have helped throw doubt on the need to restrain the alienation of certain assets are the contributions of legal doctrine, the few but valuable times the High Court of Justice has given its pronouncements and minor case law, which is also discussed in this article.