The inconsistency between civil status and civil registry documents

• Author: R. Matefi/N. Craciun
• Position: Transylvania University of Brasov
• Pages: 171-176

Bulletin of the Transylvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 9 (58) No. 2 - 2016

THE INCONSISTENCY BETWEEN CIVIL

STATUS AND CIVIL REGISTRY

DOCUMENTS

R. MATEFI1 N. CRĂCIUN1

Abstract: The present article aims to emphasize the potential

inconsistencies which can occur in practice between a person’s civil status

and the civil registry documents which prove the respective status.

Jurisprudence in this domain shows that there are numerous situations when

a person’s civil status is inconsistent with the civil status documents, an

inconsistency which must be corrected. The lawmaker provides the necessary

tools, such as rectification, when the civil status documents contain wrongful

mentions, by way of administrative or civil action. In case the inconsistency

occurs between the apparent civil status and the real one, the inconsistency

must be corrected by legal action.

Key words: civil status, civil registry document, civil registry action,

rectification.

1. Civil status

In order to determine the relation between the civil status of a person and the documents

which regulate this status, as well as the potential inconsistencies between the two, we must

establish from the very beginning which is the content and the meaning of these two

phrases.

Civil status has been given numerous definitions in the doctrine, as it is present in

specialty literature as “an ensemble of elements whereby a person is individualized, as a

subject of rights and obligations, thus establishing its legal position in relation to the family

it is a part of” (Lupulescu, 1980, p. 5) or “as a legal means of individualizing a person by

pointing out the personal qualities with this meaning” (Beleiu, 2007, p.234).

The esteemed professor Emil Poenaru defined civil status as containing “the elements

which form a person’s quality as a subject of law - different elements such as filiations,

married or divorced status, age, whether the person is adopted or adopts a child and so on

(Poenaru, 1996, p.234) ”.

Thus, we can conclude that marital status or the civil status of a person provides the

elements by which a person is individualized in society and in the legal relations he is

involved in, containing the previously stated elements.

The judicial characteristics of civil status

A first judicial character of civil st atus is its inalienability, as it can’t be completely or

1 Transylvania University of Braşov, roxana.matefi@unitbv.ro