Living as a couple

Pursuant to the Romanian Civil Code of 2009, updated, as subsequently amended and supplemented, the family is founded on marriage entered into freely by the spouses, on equality and on the parents’ right and duty to ensure their children’s upbringing and education. For the purposes of this Code, ‘spouses’ means a man and women united through marriage.

Marriage is a freely consented to union between a man and a woman, concluded in accordance with law. Men and women have the right to marry in order to start a family. A marriage ends with the death of a spouse or a court’s declaration of the death of one of the spouses and can be terminated by a divorce, in accordance with the law.

The law applicable to the matrimonial property regime pursuant to the Romanian Civil Code

By an agreement concluded before, upon or during the marriage, spouses may choose to have their matrimonial property rights governed by one of the following laws expressly referred to in Article 2590 of the Civil Code:

• the law of the country of habitual residence of one of the spouses at the time they make their choice;
• the law of the country of nationality of either spouse at the time they make their choice;
• the law of the country where they establish their first habitual residence after getting married.

In the absence of such an agreement, the matrimonial property regime is subject to the law applicable to the general effects of marriage, in accordance with Article 2592 of the Civil Code. This means that, through an objective establishment of location, one of the following laws is identified:

• the law of the country of common habitual residence of the spouses;
• the law of the spouses’ common nationality, in the absence of the spouses having a common habitual residence;
• the law of the country in which the marriage took place.

There is one exception to the application of the law designated through the objective establishment of location, namely: the law of the place where the family home is located applies to the rights of the spouses in respect of the family home and the regime of legal acts relating thereto.

The law applicable to the matrimonial property regime can be changed at any time during the marriage by concluding an agreement and subject to compliance with the following requirements relating to the law newly chosen by the spouses:

• it must be one of the laws expressly provided for by law;

it is applied prospectively, unless the spouses agree otherwise and without prejudice to the interests of third parties.