The law n°1.523 of 16 May 2022 on the promotion and protection of women's rights has recently been published in the "Journal de Monaco" on 27 May 2022.
Over the course of 3 years, 12,000 legal texts have been reviewed with a view to update them in order to remove any provisions deemed as obsolete and promoting gender inequality. This is notably the case for the "délai de viduité" - (pregnancy waiting period) - a waiting period during which a widow or divorced woman cannot remarry so as to avoid any confusion regarding the paternity of any child she may bear. This is also the case for the standard of care of "the good father / family man" (comparable to that of the "reasonable man" or "reasonable person").
Scientific progress is coming to the rescue of gender equality
40 years after the invention of DNA testing, Monaco is abolishing the "pregnancy waiting period" of 310 days which was imposed on widowed or divorced women before they could legally remarry in order to ensure that they were not pregnant from their former spouse.
Given the scientific progress in the establishment of paternity, the eradication of this discriminatory provision was long overdue.
In Monaco, women no longer have to declare that they are "good fathers / family men" in order to guarantee that they are following the legal standard of care when managing the assets of others!
The notion of "good father / family man" (in French: bon père de famille) came from the Latin expression "bonus pater familias" and appeared nearly 1 500 years ago in Roman patriarchal society.
The legal definition of the "good father / family man" standard of care involves acting in the preservation, administration, or the use of the asset of another person in a prudent, diligent, and astute manner, considering the interests of the other person as if they were one's own interests.
Until now, the Monegasque Civil Code required that female tenants comply with the obligation to use the rented property "as a good father / family man would". In addition, a woman acting as guardian of a minor had to administer the child's assets "as a good father / family man would".
To rectify this completely outdated notion, the Monegasque lawmaker replaced the expression "as a good father / family man" with the gender-neutral expressions "with all due care" and "as a good parent".
However, it is regrettable that the modernisation of this notion was not extended to the entire Civil Code, and in particular to the article 486 related to "usufruit" (life-interest) and to the article 1718 related to the "preservation of a borrowed asset".
The purpose of this legislative update is to bring the Principality of Monaco in line with the evolution of society and the international recommendations of the UN report entitled "Progress of the World's Women 2019-2020: Families in a Changing World".
This very welcomed law is an important step forward that must be consolidated and pursued further in order to achieve gender equality in the Principality of Monaco.
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