Text of the provision
Art. 39. The following circumstances, among others, modify or limit capacity to act: age, insanity, imbecility, the state of being a deaf-mute, penalty, prodigality, family relations, alienage, absence, insolvency and trusteeship. The consequences of these circumstances are governed in this Code, other codes, the Rules of Court, and in special laws.
Capacity to act is not limited on account of religious belief or political opinion.
A married woman, twenty-one years of age or over, is qualified for all acts of civil life, except in cases specified by law.
(n)
Civil Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 386, approved June 18, 1949, effective August 30, 1950. Reproduced in full; verified verbatim against the LawPhil and ChanRobles official-text renderings. Note: the third paragraph must be read with later law. The age of majority is now 18 (Republic Act No. 6809, 1989), and the Family Code and the Constitution guarantee spouses equal legal capacity, superseding any disqualification once attached to married women.
What this article means
This lists, non-exclusively ("among others"), the circumstances that modify or limit capacity to act — age, insanity, imbecility, being a deaf-mute, penalty, prodigality, family relations, alienage, absence, insolvency, and trusteeship — with their effects spread across the Code, other codes, the Rules of Court, and special laws. It affirms that capacity is never limited by religious belief or political opinion. The third paragraph, on married women, reflects 1949 law and is now superseded: majority is 18 (RA 6809) and spouses have equal capacity.
Related provisions
- Article 38 — restrictions do not exempt from certain obligations.
- Article 37 — the two kinds of capacity.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.