Disparition de personnes et présomption de décès : observations de droit comparé

This article reviews in a comparative perspective the regulations of different Western legal Systems on the cases of absence, disappearance and the presumption of death. Continental Systems are considered in the first place, from their two main historical sources, the French and the Germanie. The common law Systems are studied then, from their origins in the English law to their developments in the American common law and other mixed jurisdictions. The effects of the declaration of presumptive death are scrutinized comparatively, under different common categories. The study ends with an analysis of the tendencies underlying the developments found in this legal institution. The first outstanding tendency is one that progressively distinguishes the cases of absence from those of disappearance, both of them frequently confused in many legislations. Another One in the development of this subject is the separation being made between the genuine cases of disappearance, with doubt about life or death, from those of a certain death lacking the evidence of the corpse. One last legislative trend the article perceives is a strong tension between a position that considers the presumption of death as a declarative judgement, rebutta-ble with the evidence of life, and a view that understands it as being a judicially constituted status, its effects ending with the appearance of the disappeared person.