French Marriage Contracts

Régime légal:

Where a marriage took place in France and thereafter the spouses resided in France, the Régime légal is the statutory default matrimonial regime that governs in French law the property rights of the spouses.

In the event of a succession, and in the absence of a "bespoke" marriage settlement, the surviving spouse is entitled to half of all property purchased during the marriage through the earned income or savings of the spouses. This property as it is acquired by the parties is impressed by a "tenancy in common", rather than a "joint tenancy", and on the death of one of the spouses (or divorce), half of it will vest automatically in the survivor, as being its share under the regime. The law of succession will not affect that share, but only the half share of the deceased.

Régimes particuliers:

These are "bespoke" regimes, which take the form of marriage settlements signed at the time of marriage or subsequently. Contrast this to the legal regime referred to above which is a statutory contract on terms found in the French Civil code which comes into effect automatically on marriage if the parties have not made their own arragements through a "bespoke" marriage settlement. The bespoke regimes, roughly speaking, cover the extremes of the marriage regime spectrum, whereas the legal regime occupies the middle ground. Having said this, the bespoke regimes offer a good degree of latitude for "mixing and matching" ie. taking a bit from one regime and placing it in another.

Communauté Universelle :

This is most protective regime for the more vulnerable party to a marriage, who even nowadays is often the wife. This regime impresses all assets belonging to the spouses, whether owned by them before marriage or vested in them, thereafter, by way of gift or inheritance or acquired through their earnings or savings, with a tenancy in common. At death the surviving spouse, on the unwinding of the "communauté universelle" regime will receive half of the assets as its share of the now defunct "tenancy in common". This division operates outside the law of succession. It is only once this division has been carried out that the law of succession will operate over the half share of the deceased in the tenancy in common.

Communauté universelle with attribution intégrale : Furthermore, it is possible for the spouses to choose either at the time of marriage or thereafter a re-inforced type of "communauté universelle" by adding to it what is known as a "attribution intégrale" provision, which turns the regime into a "joint tenancy" over all the assets. By the device of the "attribution intégrale" provision, the whole estate of the deceased vests automatically in the survivor by virtue of the "right of survivorship". This vesting operates outside the law of succession altogether, and the children of the deceased, therefore, cannot contest its operation, save in respect of any children of a previous marriage, who could successfully contest this situation on the grounds that this would deprive them of their rightful reserved share of the estate of the deceased parent.

Séparation de biens:

 This is the least protective regime for the vunerable surviving spouse in France. This is whereby the spouses specify in their marriage settlement that in the absence of an express intention to the contrary (generally expressed in the form of a gift inter vivos or a purchase in common) all property owned by each of them at the time of marriage or acquired thereafter by gift, inheritance or for consideration, shall remain their separate and independent property.

In that event the surviving spouse can only look either to the rules of intestacy, or to a disposition under the will of the deceased, for any share in his estate, such share in the event of children to be conditioned by their statutory "reserved share" rule. It is noteworthy, that French courts, assimilate the default English matrimonial regime (ie in the absence of an English marriage settlement) to the French "séparation des biens" regime, an interpretation which is not very helpful to English surviving spouses who have a residential property in France or are deemed to have transferred their domicile in France.