LA EFICACIA DEL IGNORADO REGISTRO CIVIL EN EL RECONOCIMIENTO DE LA FILIACIÓN EXTRAMATRIMONIAL POR TÍTULO FIDEDIGNO.

Abstract

There are greater difficulties involved in determining extramarital filiation than in determining the filiation of a child that is issue of a marriage, for the simple reason that, in the former case, there is an initial presumption of the non-existence of any legal tie.  When a child born out of wedlock is acknowledged before a Civil Registry officer by both parents as established by law, filiation is lawfully registered and therefore seems to pose no further problems, unless one of the parents were to submit a challenge at some later date.  The difficulties arise when a child born out of wedlock is acknowledged in a title or other document, because in that event the acknowledgement must meet certain minimum guarantees. A few years ago the Directorate-General of Registries and Notarial Affairs resolved to publish Recommendation Number 9 of the International Commission on Civil Status on combating document fraud.  Legislation’s current demands in regard to the requirements that a document attesting to filiation must meet are without doubt set in response to the important legal consequences this new form of acknowledgement has for the persons so acknowledged and for their entire families, whereas a new filiation may even effect the succession rights of an entire hereditary line.   Study of the published work is certainly of major legal interest. The paper strives to coordinate the system of rules under the Civil Code, which still contains many historic overtones, and the new Civil Registry legislation recently amended by Act 20/2011 of 21 July on the Civil Registry. The interpretation, which integrates the traditional, historic set of rules under the Civil Code with the new, liberal Civil Registry regulations, forms quite a unique combination that is well worth study by the finest of legal scholars.