Key Marital Rights and Duties

Duties of Spouses

1) Duty to live together in one home
2) Duty to observe mutual love and respect
3) Duty to observe mutual fidelity
4) Duty to render mutual help and support
5) Duty to manage the household
6) Duty to support the family
7) Duty to fix the domicile

Rights of Spouses

1) Right to cohabitation
2) Right to sexual intimacy
3) Right to procreate
4) Right to jointly exercise parental authority over the children
5) Right to be supported by the other (except the spouse who leaves the conjugal home or refuses to live thereon)
6) Right to be loved and be comforted
7) Right to jointly fix the family residence
8) Right to manage the household
9) Right to exercise any legitimate profession
10)Right to give and receive moderate gifts to and from each other
11)Right to retain the ownership, possession, and administration of their exclusive separate properties
12)Right to freely alienate their exclusive separate properties without getting the consent of the other spouse
13)Right not to waive interests, rights and shares of the absolute community of property during marriage
14)Right to the administration and enjoyment of the community property
15)Right not to support the abandoning or guilty spouse
16)Right to encumber and administer the separate property of the other spouse, if granted a judicial authority to do so

Remedies when a spouse fails or refuses to comply with marital duties

1) Annulment of Marriage
2) Declaration of Nullity of Marriage
3) Legal Separation
4) Action for Support
5) Action for Damages
6) Action for Receivership
7) Judicial Separation of Property
8) Action for Guardianship
9) Action for Sole Administration of Property
10)Judicial Admonition of Spouse
11)Judicial Declaration of Presumptive Death
12)Summary Judicial Proceeding
13)Action for Injunctive Relief
14)Contempt Action
15)Criminal Action
16)Administrative Action
(These legal and equitable remedies are available to all spouses under the appropriate set of circumstances and evidence.)