Act reforming the Civil Code, 17 August 1989. [Selected provisions].

PIP: Ecuador's Act reforming the Civil Code, August 17, 1989, covers filiation, marriage, termination of marriage, the status of married women, marital property, marriage contracts, and parent-child relations. Filiation can now be established by being born to a couple living in a non-marital, stable, monogamous, and legally recognized relationship. Marriage is no longer defined as indissoluble and life-long. A marriage cannot be nullified after two years of its celebration or the time when the grounds for nullification were discovered except when the ground is incest or bigamy. There is a 300-day waiting period for remarriage after divorce when the woman does not prove she is not pregnant or her future husband does not certify that he will recognize as his any child to whom she gives birth. Grave injuries or a hostile attitude may individually provide grounds for divorce. Voluntary and unjustified abandonment for more than one year continuously is now grounds for divorce; abandonment lasting more than three years gives either party grounds for divorce. Language providing that a husband must protect his wife and the wife be obedient to her husband is replaced with language providing that marriage is based on the equality of rights and duties of both spouses. Language providing that the husband has a right to have the wife live with and follow him is replaced with language providing that the spouses shall establish their residence by common agreement. Either spouse, rather than just the husband, may now manage the community property; the marriage certificate is to specify which spouse will ordinarily manage the community property. Language providing that children owe more duty and respect to their father than their mother is now sex-neutral. Both parents, rather than just the father, now have the right and the duty to direct the children's education. Provisions of the Code relating to parental authority are amended to make them refer to both parents, rather than just the father.^ieng