[ Du Sort Successoral du Conjoint Survivant dans un mariage non enregistré en Droit Congolais ]
Volume 44, Issue 3, January 2025, Pages 609–628
Robert LUSUNGU MUTOMBO1
1 Assistant à l’Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de MPENGYE MUKANKALA, ISP-MPENGYE MUKANKALA, Lomami, en RD Congo
Original language: French
Copyright © 2025 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Death is a universal and inescapable phenomenon. It comes knocking at everyone’s door, unasked for and sometimes when we least expect it. In the aftermath of death, many people have questions about the legal and tax aspects of inheritance. Indeed, the death of a person has a number of legal effects, including the transfer of his or her estate to heirs and legatees. Where the deceased was married, a surviving spouse is entitled to inherit the estate. The aim of this article is to develop the study of the protection of the surviving spouse in Congolese family law. To achieve our objectives, we have used legal, historical, comparative and sociological methods. In this study, we have found that, in matters of succession, the Congolese legislator of the Family Code has demonstrated the need to depart somewhat from tradition, the better to depart from custom. It should be noted that the Family Code represents a complete break with all our customs in this area. Thus, the same Family Code grants the surviving spouse usufruct of the house inhabited by the spouses, the furniture, half of the usufruct of the adjoining land that the occupant of the house personally farmed, as well as the related business.
Author Keywords: death, legal, spouse, survivor, succession, patrimony.
Volume 44, Issue 3, January 2025, Pages 609–628
Robert LUSUNGU MUTOMBO1
1 Assistant à l’Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de MPENGYE MUKANKALA, ISP-MPENGYE MUKANKALA, Lomami, en RD Congo
Original language: French
Copyright © 2025 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Death is a universal and inescapable phenomenon. It comes knocking at everyone’s door, unasked for and sometimes when we least expect it. In the aftermath of death, many people have questions about the legal and tax aspects of inheritance. Indeed, the death of a person has a number of legal effects, including the transfer of his or her estate to heirs and legatees. Where the deceased was married, a surviving spouse is entitled to inherit the estate. The aim of this article is to develop the study of the protection of the surviving spouse in Congolese family law. To achieve our objectives, we have used legal, historical, comparative and sociological methods. In this study, we have found that, in matters of succession, the Congolese legislator of the Family Code has demonstrated the need to depart somewhat from tradition, the better to depart from custom. It should be noted that the Family Code represents a complete break with all our customs in this area. Thus, the same Family Code grants the surviving spouse usufruct of the house inhabited by the spouses, the furniture, half of the usufruct of the adjoining land that the occupant of the house personally farmed, as well as the related business.
Author Keywords: death, legal, spouse, survivor, succession, patrimony.
Abstract: (french)
La mort est un phénomène universel et incontournable. Elle frappe à la porte de quiconque, sans lui en avoir demandé l’aval et parfois lorsque l’on s’y attend le moins. Suite à ce décès, nombreuses sont les personnes qui s’interrogent sur les mesures juridiques et fiscales en matière de succession. En effet, le décès d’une personne a des effets juridiques au nombre desquels la transmission de son patrimoine entre les héritiers et les éventuels légataires. Lorsqu’il était marié, le défunt laisse une conjointe survivante qui a des droits patrimoniaux sur la succession. Cet article poursuit l’objectif de développer l’étude de la protection de la conjointe survivante en droit congolais de la famille. Pour atteindre nos objectifs, nous avons recouru à la méthode juridique, historique, comparative et sociologique. Dans cette étude nous avons trouvé qu’en matière de succession, le législateur congolais du code de la famille prouve la nécessité de s’écarter quelque peu de la tradition mieux de la coutume. Signalons que le code de la famille a mis une rupture totale avec toutes nos coutumes en cette matière. Ainsi donc, le même code de la famille accorde au conjointe survivante l’usufruit de la maison habitée par les époux, des meubles meublants, la moitié de l’usufruit des terres attenantes que l’occupant de la maison exploitait personnellement ainsi que du fonds de commerce y afférent.
Author Keywords: mort, juridique, conjointe, survivante, succession, patrimoine.
How to Cite this Article
Robert LUSUNGU MUTOMBO, “The Inheritance Rights of the Surving Spouse in an Unregisered Mariage under Congolese Law,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 609–628, January 2025.
