There are several marital property systems in our country, which are established in the Civil Code. During a marriage, both parties have several options:

1. Choose between existing property systems.

2. Modify the property systems established in the Civil Code contractually, before the marriage.

3. Elaborate your own marital property system following the guidelines established by law.

Based on that, it can be said that there is a great diversity of marital property systems, given that both parties can agree on anything they want, thus making them infinite. However, most of the time, parties do not choose a marital property system and when this happens, it is presumed that they have contracted marriage under the community property legal system, which is added to the marriage certificate.

A marriage triggers two different legal effects, namely:

1. Personal Legal Effects.

2. Patrimonial Legal Effects.

Article 1389, its ensuing articles and the doctrine regarding matrimonial property systems, are specific in stating that the parties are free to establish any provision tending to govern the personal and patrimonial legal effects of their marriage; as long as they do not go against Public Order, Succession Public Order and proper conduct.

Marital property systems established in the Civil Code, can be divided into 2 large groups: Community and Equitable Distribution.

• Within the group of Community Marriage regimes we can mention:

1. Legal Community of Goods Regime. This property system is established in article 1400 of the Dominican Civil Code. With this regime, pre-existing property, joint furnishings and property acquired during the marriage are unified.

2. Community of Joint Property Regime. This property system is established in article 1498 of the Dominican Civil Code. In this regime, the respective current and future debts of the spouses, along with their respective current and future furnishings are excluded from the community.

One of the main features of this regime is that the only assets divided are those generated during the marriage.

“There are those who believe that this, while being a Communitarian regime, can also be classified within the Separatist regime due to its nature”

3. Universal Community Regime. This property system is established in article 1526 of the Dominican Civil Code. In the Universal Community Regime, current and future movable and immovable property are included in the marital community. Under this regime, spouses may also agree that only their present or future property will be part of the community.

• Some of the Community Marriage regimes available are:

1. Conventional Regime of Asset separation. This regime was established in the Dominican Civil Code, and these provisions were repealed by Law 2125 on September 27th, 1949, Official Gazette 7001. In separation of goods regimes, since property is owned by each of the spouses, there are no common goods. Each party maintains the administration, disposition, and enjoyment of said goods.

2. Endowment Regime. This property system is established in article 1542 of the Dominican Civil Code. In this regime, the woman surrenders all or some of her goods to her husband, and he maintains their administration and enjoyment. Additionally, the woman owns goods that are not part of the household and therefore, are not part of the endowed assets. The woman maintains enjoyment and administration, but cannot sell those goods without the husband’s consent or judicial authorization, these assets are called paraphernal goods. This marital property system is rarely used today.

Formalities of marriage conventions.

The property separation regime, unlike the community of property regime, must meet certain formalities.

The formalities to be followed in matrimonial conventions are established in article 1391 and its subsequent articles of the Dominican Civil Code. One of those regulations is the fact that said contract must be an authentic act, drafted by a notary public lawyer.

The marriage agreement in question must be notified to:

1. The Dominican College of Notaries.
2. The Civil Registry Office of the corresponding Jurisdiction.
3. To the Chamber of Commerce and Production (in the event that they are merchants).

It is necessary to take into account that what is notified is not the Notarial Act, but the certification, issued by the notary in question. Said deed will state the desire of the parties to marry, as well as the names, surnames, place of residence, qualities, domicile of future spouses and the date of the contract, as established in article 1393 of the Dominican Civil Code.

However, not notifying the College of Notaries or the appropriate Chamber of Commerce and Production does not affect the validity of the contract.

The essential validity conditions to which the marriage contracts must be subject to, so that they can have legal effect, are the following:

A) Must have taken place before the marriage.

B) Must have been submitted to the Civil Registry Office, before the marriage took place.

C) The conventions established by the contracting parties must not contravene public order, successor public order or good conduct.

D) The marriage must be effectively celebrated thereafter between the parties.

It is our opinion that in order to publicize the marriage contract, a notification to the Civil Registry office with jurisdiction to the domicile of the parties should suffice.

Any change in the marriage contract must be made at a time prior to the celebration of the marriage and following the same formalities that have been established to do so.

It is necessary to specify that once the marriage is celebrated, the Civil Registry Officer must limit themselves to establishing that the spouses have married under a marriage contract in the marriage certificate issued. There is no need to establish the regime that was agreed upon, since we understand that any mention of the specific matrimonial regime that has been contracted between the spouses would be in violation of their privacy.