Glossae on the New Law of Filiation

Through the enactment of Act 192 of 2005 ("2005 Act 192"), effective June 29, 2005, and Act 344 of 2006 ("2006 Act 344"), effective June 13, 2006, the Louisiana Legislature comprehensively revised those parts of Louisiana's legislation that establish the law of "filiation by nature"1-Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Title VII of Book I of the Civil Code as well as the correlative Civil Code Ancillaries. Like nearly all (indeed, all but one2) of the "comprehensive revisions" of the Civil Code that have been accomplished over the last three decades, this one ("Revision") grew out of the work of the Louisiana State Law Institute ("Institute"), more precisely, its Persons Committee ("Committee").3 Though the Committee had produced but a single projet ("Projet") for the Revision, the Projet, for reasons of legislative strategy, was later split into two parts, the first of which consisted of the proposed revisions to the Civil Code and the second of which consisted of the proposed revisions to the Civil Code Ancillaries. The former formed the basis for 2005 Act 192; the latter, the basis for 2006 Act 344.4

My aim in this article is to present to the reader the revised Civil Code articles and the most important of the revised Civil Code Ancillaries, with a view to assisting him in understanding how this new legislation does and does not "change the law." To this end, I shall follow a format for the presentation of revisions to the Civil Code that Dean Symeon Symeonides pioneered some years back and that I have since then followed,5 namely, that of (1) visually juxtaposing the texts of the new and old legislation, and (2) "glossing" (footnoting) the text of the old legislation or that of the new legislation, as might be appropriate, to signal what has been changed and what has not. In referring to the old and new legislation, I shall, following the practice first established by Dean Symeonides, use the abbreviations "OA" (old article) and "NA" (new article), respectively.

Tit. VII. Parent and Child

Tit. VII. Parent and Child 6

Chapter 1. Of Children in General 7

No corresponding chapter heading

Art. 178. Classification of children Children are either legitimate or illegitimate.

No corresponding article

Art. 179. Legitimate children Legitimate children are those who are either born or conceived during marriage or who have been legitimated as provided hereafter.

No corresponding article

Art. 180. Illegitimate children Illegitimate children are those who are conceived and born out of marriage.

No corresponding article

Art. 181. Legitimation Illegitimate children may be legitimated in certain cases, in the manner prescribed by law.

No corresponding article

Arts. 182, 183.8 Repealed by 1979 La. Acts No. 607

No corresponding articles

No corresponding chapter

Ch. 1. Proof of Maternity 9

No corresponding article

Art. 184. Maternity10 Maternity may be established by a preponderance of the evidence that the child was born of a particular woman,11 except as otherwise provided by law.12

No corresponding chapter

Ch. 2. Proof of Paternity 13...

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