Can my mother put a clause in her will stating that it can never be revoked or changed for the rest of her life?

The clause is void, and only the clause

Article 828 answers this in two sentences. A will may be revoked by the testator at any time before his death. Any waiver or restriction of this right is void. A will is not a bargain with the beneficiaries; it is a disposition that speaks only at death and remains entirely the testator's own until then. Notice that the second sentence voids the restriction rather than the will, so a mother who inserts such a clause has not spoiled her own instrument. She has simply written a line that the law ignores, and everything else she said continues to operate normally.

A promise made outside the will fares no better

The wording is Any waiver or restriction of this right — not any clause in a will. So the same answer applies to the arrangements families reach for when they discover the clause does not work: a signed undertaking to the children that she will not change her will, a side letter, a term in a settlement. Each is a waiver or restriction of the right Article 828 protects, and each is void as such. This is worth saying plainly to relatives who are pressing for reassurance, because the reassurance they want cannot be given in a form that binds.

How revocation actually happens

Article 830 closes the list: No will shall be revoked except in the following cases: (1) By implication of law; or (2) By some will, codicil, or other writing executed as provided in case of wills; or (3) By burning, tearing, cancelling, or obliterating the will with the intention of revoking it, by the testator himself, or by some other person in his presence, and by his express direction. Two consequences follow for families. Destruction only revokes where the intention was to revoke, so an accidental loss is not a revocation. And under Article 837, revoking a second will does not revive the first — reviving it takes a fresh will or codicil.

What she can do instead

If the aim is that a particular allocation should hold, the Code offers a different route. Article 1080 provides that Should a person make partition of his estate by an act inter vivos, or by will, such partition shall be respected, insofar as it does not prejudice the legitime of the compulsory heirs. An act inter vivos disposes now rather than at death, which is why it is not caught by Article 828 — but it also means parting with the property while she is alive, and that is a serious decision with its own consequences. Where she only wants orderly amendment, a codicil under Articles 825 and 826 is the tidy instrument for it.

Related provisions

• Civil Code, Article 828 — A Will Is Always Revocable
• Civil Code, Article 830 — The Three Ways to Revoke
• Civil Code, Article 837 — No Automatic Revival
• Civil Code, Article 825 — Codicil Defined
• Civil Code, Article 826 — A Codicil Needs a Will's Formalities
• Civil Code, Article 1080 — Partition by the Decedent Himself