Text consolidated by Tulkošanas un terminoloģijas centrs (Translation and Terminology Centre) with amending laws of:

7 July 1992;

22 December 1992;

15 June 1994;

24 April 1997;

16 October 1997

14 May 1998;

11 June 1998;

17 September 1998;

12 December 2002;

10 March 2005;

26 January 2006;

22 June 2006.

If a whole or part of a section has been amended, the date of the amending law appears in square brackets at the end of the section. If a whole section, paragraph or clause has been deleted, the date of the deletion appears in square brackets beside the deleted section, paragraph or clause.

The Saeima1 has adopted and

the President has proclaimed the following Law:

THE CIVIL LAW

Introduction

1. Rights shall be exercised and duties performed in good faith.

2. This Law is applicable to all legal issues, to which its text or interpretation relates.

Rights based on custom may neither set aside nor vary law. Rights based on custom are applicable in the cases specified by law.

3. Every civil legal relation shall be adjudged in accordance with the laws, which are in force at the time when such legal relations are created, varied or terminated. Previously acquired rights shall not be affected.

4. The provisions of this Law shall be interpreted firstly in accordance with their direct meaning; where necessary, they may also be interpreted in accordance with the structure, basis and purposes of this Law; and, finally, they may also be interpreted through analogy.

5. Where a matter is required to be decided in the discretion of a court or on the basis of good cause, the judge shall decide the matter in accordance with a sense of justice and the general principles of law.

6. The general provisions regarding obligations are applicable mutatis mutandis to family, inheritance and property legal relations.

7. Place of residence (domicile) is that place where a person is voluntarily dwelling with the express or implied intent to permanently live or work there.

A person may also have more than one place of residence.

Temporary residence does not create the legal consequences of a place of residence and shall be adjudged not on the basis of duration, but in accordance with intent.

8. The legal capacity and capacity to act of natural persons shall be determined in accordance with the law of their place of residence. If a person has a number of places of residence and one of them is in Latvia, then such person's legal capacity and capacity to act, as well as the consequences of his or her legal acts shall be adjudged in accordance with Latvian law.

Foreign nationals, who do not have capacity to act, but who could be acknowledged to have such capacity pursuant to Latvian law, are bound by their legal acts performed in Latvia, if this is required in the interests of administering justice.

The rights and capacity to act of a legal person shall be determined pursuant to the law of the place where its board of directors is located.

The provisions of the laws of Latvia, which restrict the legal capacity or capacity to act of foreign nationals in Latvia, are not affected.

9. Guardianship and trusteeship shall be established in accordance with Latvian law, if the place of residence of the persons subject to guardianship or trusteeship is in Latvia. If the property of such persons is located in Latvia they, in respect of such property, shall be subject to Latvian law notwithstanding that they do not have a place of residence in Latvia.

The adoption of the other spouse’s child shall be approved according to Latvian Law if the place of residence of the person to be adopted is Latvia.

[10 March 2005]

10. Missing persons may be declared presumed dead in accordance with Latvian law, if their last place of residence was in Latvia. If the property of such persons is located in Latvia they, in respect of such property, shall be subject to Latvian law notwithstanding that they did not have a place of residence in Latvia.

11. If a marriage is entered into in Latvia, the right to marry, the formalities of entering into marriage and the effect of marriage shall be determined in accordance with Latvian law.

Similarly, the right of a citizen of Latvia to marry in a foreign state shall be determined in accordance with Latvian law. In that case, the law of the state, where the marriage is entered into, shall determine the formalities of entering into marriage.

12. Dissolution of marriage and the declaration of a marriage as annulled, if done in a Latvian court, shall be adjudged in accordance with Latvian law, without regard to the nationality of the spouses. In this respect, an exception may be allowed to the provisions of Section 3, in the sense that the relations of the spouses before they become subject to Latvian law, may also be adjudged in accordance with Latvian law.

A dissolution or declaration as annulled of a marriage of citizens of Latvia, done in a foreign state, shall also be recognised in Latvia, except in a case where the grounds submitted as the basis therefor do not conform to Latvian law and are in conflict with the social or moral standards of Latvia.

13. Personal and property relations of spouses shall be determined in accordance with Latvian law, if the place of residence of the spouses is in Latvia. If property of the spouses is located in Latvia they, in respect of such property, shall be subject to Latvian law notwithstanding that they themselves do not have a place of residence in Latvia.

14. Legal relations, which are associated with the paternity of a child and the dispute thereof shall be adjudged in accordance with Latvian law, if the place of residence of the mother of the child at the time of the birth of the child was in Latvia.

Latvian law is also applicable where a dispute regarding the paternity of a child arises in Latvia.

[12 December 2002]

15. Legal relations between parents and children shall be subject to Latvian law if the specified place of residence of the child is Latvia.

In respect of such property as is located in Latvia, parents and children are subject to Latvian law also when the specified place of residence of the child is not in Latvia.

[12 December 2002]

16. Inheritance rights regarding an inheritance located in Latvia shall be adjudged in accordance with Latvian law.

17. The distribution, in a foreign state, of an inheritance shall be allowed only after the lawful claims against the inheritance, of persons whose place of residence is in Latvia, are satisfied first.

18. Property rights - including possession -shall be determined in accordance with the law of the place where the property is located.

Where there is a change in the location of movable property, the property rights of third persons acquired pursuant to the laws of the place where such movable property was previously located, shall not be affected.

The consequences of elapse of prescriptive periods or periods of limitation, in regard to property rights shall be adjudged in accordance with the law of the place where the property is located when the period elapses.

The acquiring, varying or termination of property rights, if related to immovable property located in Latvia, and obligation rights arising from legal transactions, on the basis of which such property rights may be acquired, varied or terminated, shall, in respect of form and substance, be determined solely in accordance with Latvian law, regardless of what persons made the relevant legal transactions and where they made them. Conflicting provisions and forms as are in such legal transactions are not in force in Latvia.

19. In respect of obligations rights and duties arising from contract, it must first be ascertained whether the contracting parties have agreed as to what laws their mutual relations shall be adjudged in accordance with. Such agreement shall be in effect, insofar as it is not in conflict with mandatory or prohibitory norms of Latvian law.

If there is no agreement, it shall be presumed that the contracting parties have made their obligation, in accordance with its substance and consequences, subject to the laws of the state where the obligation is to be performed.

If the place where the obligation is to be performed is not able to be determined, the law of the place where the contract was entered into is applicable.

Contracts entered into by institutions of the State of Latvia and local governments of Latvia shall be adjudged, in respect of their substance and consequences, in accordance with Latvian law, provided it is not otherwise stipulated in the contract itself.

20. Obligations not based on contract shall be adjudged, in respect of their substance and consequences, in accordance with the law of the place where the basis, from which the obligation arose, was created. Obligations arising from wrongful acts shall be adjudged in accordance with the law of the place where the wrongful acts took place.

21. Either the law of the place where a legal transaction was made or the law of the place where it is to be performed may be applied to the form of a legal transaction.

The provisions of Section 18, Paragraph four shall be complied with in regard to the form of such transactions as relate to immovable property in Latvia.

22. Where Latvian law allows the application of the law of a foreign state, the substance thereof shall be determined in accordance with the procedure prescribed in the Civil Procedure Law. If that is not possible, it shall be presumed that the legal system in the relevant foreign state, in the area of law to be adjudged, conforms to the Latvian legal system in the same area.

23. If pursuant to the provisions of this introduction the law of a foreign state must be applied, but such law in turn stipulates that Latvian law is applicable, then Latvian law shall be applied.

24. The law of a foreign state is not applicable in Latvia if is in conflict with the social or moral ideals of Latvia, or mandatory or prohibitory norms of Latvian law.

25. The provisions of this introduction are applicable insofar as it is not prescribed otherwise in international agreements and conventions to which Latvia is a party.

PART ONE

Family Law

CHAPTER 1

Marriage

SUB-CHAPTER 1

Betrothal

26. A betrothal is a mutual promise to join together in marriage. A betrothal does not give rise to a right to bring court action to enforce the entering into of a marriage. A contractual penalty stipulated in the event that someone refuses to enter into marriage is void.

27. If the betrothal is cancelled or if one of the betrothed withdraws from it, each of the betrothed shall return all the property that has been given to him or her as a gift by the other, his or her parents or another person in connection with the intended marriage. The right to request the return of gifts does not devolve to the heirs of the deceased donor, but the heirs may continue an action brought by the deceased donor.

Gifts need not be returned, if the marriage does not take place because:

1) the betrothed donor has died;

2) the donor has refused to marry without good cause; or

3) the behaviour of the donor has been good cause for the other betrothed to refuse to marry.

28. If one of the betrothed refuses to enter into marriage without good cause or so behaves that such behaviour is good cause for the other betrothed to repudiate the marriage, the latter betrothed, his or her parents or persons who have incurred some expenditure for the benefit of the betrothed, may claim from the defaulting betrothed compensation for the direct losses caused to them in connection with the fact that he or she, in prospect of the intended marriage, have incurred some expenditure or have entered into some obligations.

Independently of this, the betrothed himself or herself may request from the other betrothed who has given cause to cancel the betrothal, compensation for losses which he or she has suffered from such actions as pertain to his or her property and potential earnings and to what he or she have done in connection with the intended marriage.

The amount of compensation for losses shall be in accordance with the financial means of the defaulting betrothed.

[12 December 2002]

29. Deleted.

30. Deleted.

31. Actions arising from the betrothal are terminated through prescription after a period of one year calculated from the day when the betrothal was cancelled or when a betrothed withdrew from it, but in the case of a pregnant fiancée, from the day when the child was born if at such time the betrothal had already been cancelled or the betrothed had withdrawn from it

SUB-CHAPTER 2

Entering into Marriage and Termination of Marriage

I. Impediments to Entering into Marriage

32. Marriage prior to the attaining of eighteen years of age is prohibited except in the case provided for in Section 33.

33. By way of exception, a person who has attained sixteen years of age may marry with the consent of his or her parents or guardians if he or she marries a person of age of majority.

If the parents or guardians, without good cause, refuse to give permission, then permission may be given by an Orphan’s court for the place where the parents or appointed guardians reside.

34. Persons who have been found by a court to lack capacity to act due to mental illness or mental deficiency are prohibited from marrying.

35. Marriage is prohibited between kin in a direct line, brothers and sisters, and half-brothers and half-sisters (Section 213). Marriage between persons of the same sex is prohibited.

36. Deleted.