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Peruvian law - recognises full legal capacity and abolishes guardianship


On 4 September 2018, the Peruvian Government published Legislative Decree No. 1384 that recognizes and regulates the legal capacity of persons with disabilities. The reform was adopted by the Executive following the delegation of legislative powers granted by the Congress via Law No. 30823.

The legislative decree adopted, which holds the same status of a law, reforms the Civil Code, the Civil Procedural Code and the Notary Act. It recognizes the full legal capacity of all persons with disabilities, abolishes guardianship for persons with disabilities, removes restrictions on their legal capacity (e.g. to marry or to make a will), and introduces different regimes for supported decision-making. Legislative Decree No. 1384 also recognized the right to reasonable and procedural accommodation in courts and notary offices.

Restrictions to legal capacity remain for persons with addictions ("the habitual drunkards" and "the drug addicts"), "bad administrators", "prodigals", people criminally convicted, and people in a coma who do not have a designated support (although in this last case, the judge will explore support measures). This was a setback for civil society but historically those forms of guardianship (now curatorship) have had little use for a number of reasons: persons with addictions are not usually put under guardianship because mental health legislation permits their involuntary treatment; and to be declared a "bad administrator" or a "prodigal" (archaic legal provisions) a person has to "squander" more than half of their assets or significantly affect their future heirs.



(video with English subtitles)

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