DR2028 analytical summary. This is a research brief prepared by the DR2028 movement on the Dominican Civil Code's structure and jurisdictional role. It is not an official government publication.
The Dominican Civil Code
The Dominican Republic's private law is codified in a Civil Code in the French (Napoleonic) tradition, first adopted in the 19th century (1845) and modified in 1884. Like its French model of 1804, it organizes private relations into a systematic code rather than leaving them to judicial precedent: in the Dominican system, statute is the primary source of civil law.
Structure: three books
- Book I — Persons: civil rights, domicile, guardianship, parent-child relations, marriage, and dissolution of marriage.
- Book II — Property: ownership, usufruct, servitudes, and the regulation of things.
- Book III — Acquisition of rights: succession and inheritance, donations, marriage settlements, obligations and contracts, mortgages, and prescription (limitation) of actions.
Jurisdictional role
Civil jurisdiction — the ordinary courts — applies the Code to disputes between private parties: family matters, property boundaries and titles, inheritances, contracts, and liability. Because the Code's categories are exhaustive by design, judges interpret within the statute rather than making law. Reforms to family, property, or contract regimes therefore move through the legislature, not the courts.
DR2028 relevance
Several DR2028 decrees touch private rights governed by this Code — property reclamation, construction liability, and contract enforcement among them. This summary exists so readers can see exactly which civil-law foundations our decrees build on, and where a DR2028 reform would require the legislature to amend the Code itself rather than acting by decree.