Short answer. No. The Family Code makes marriages between parents-in-law and children-in-law void from the beginning for reasons of public policy, and it sets no time limit on the bar. The death of your spouse ends the marriage, but it does not lift this prohibition.

What the law says

The following marriages shall be void from the beginning for reasons of public policy: (1) Between collateral blood relatives whether legitimate or illegitimate, up to the fourth civil degree; (2) Between step-parents and step-children; (3) Between parents-in-law and children-in-law

Family Code, Article 38 — Marriages Void for Public Policy. Read the full provision →

The provision names a relationship, not a subsisting marriage

Item three of Article 38 bars marriages between parents-in-law and children-in-law, and that is the whole of it. There is no clause confining the prohibition to a marriage still in existence, no clause reviving capacity on the death of the spouse who created the relationship, and no period after which the bar expires. Anyone considering such a marriage would be relying on a limitation the article does not contain. The safest reading, and the one to plan around, is that widowhood changes your civil status without changing how the law classifies your relationship to your late spouse's parent.

Blood bars and policy bars work differently

It helps to see where this sits. Article 37 deals with relationships by blood and calls those marriages incestuous — ascendants and descendants of any degree, and brothers and sisters of the full or half blood. Article 38 deals with relationships the law creates or recognises for other reasons and voids those marriages for reasons of public policy. That is why the list includes step-parents and step-children, several adoption relationships, and a party who killed the other's spouse in order to marry them. None of these people share blood; the objection is to the position they occupy in a family.

The rest of the list catches people out too

Two items are worth flagging because they surprise people. The first bars marriages between collateral blood relatives whether legitimate or illegitimate, up to the fourth civil degree, which reaches first cousins — a relationship many families treat as distant. The others concern adoption: the adopting parent and the adopted child, the surviving spouse of either with the other, an adopted child and a legitimate child of the adopter, and two children adopted by the same adopter. An adoption decree that closed decades ago still defines these relationships, whatever the day-to-day family reality looks like now.

What to do before anyone sets a date

A marriage falling within Article 38 is void from the beginning, which means it never produces the status, the property regime or the succession rights the parties expect from it, and no lapse of time repairs that. It is also not something a registrar's willingness to issue a license settles, because issuance is not adjudication. If your intended marriage touches any relationship on this list — in-law, step, adoptive, or a cousin within the fourth degree — take the birth, marriage and adoption records to a lawyer first and get the position confirmed before the wedding rather than after.

Cases citing this provision

These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.