The Law 8/2021, of June 2, which reforms the civil and procedural legislation to support people with disabilities in the exercise of their legal capacity, was published in the BOE on June 3, 2021, after being approved by the Congress of Deputies on May 20, 2021. It will enter into force on September 3, 2021. This reform aims to adapt Spanish legislation to the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which states that people with disabilities have legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life, and requires States Parties to take appropriate measures to provide them with access to the support they may need in exercising their legal capacity.
The reform will change the current system in which decision-making for people with disabilities is dominated by substitution, to a system based on respect for the person's will and preferences, where the person is generally responsible for making their own decisions. The law consists of eight articles, two additional provisions, six transitional provisions, one repealing provision, and three final provisions. It modifies the Law of Notaries, the Civil Code, the Mortgage Law, the Law on Civil Procedure, the Law on the Protection of the Property of Persons with Disabilities and the Modification of the Civil Code, the Law on Civil Registry, and the Law on Voluntary Jurisdiction, as well as the Commercial Code and the Penal Code.
The reform of the Civil Code is the most extensive and far-reaching, as it sets the foundations of the new system based on respect for the will and preferences of people with disabilities. The Title XI of Book One of the Civil Code is completely redrafted and renamed "Measures to support people with disabilities in the exercise of their legal capacity." The central idea of the new system is to support people who need it, including everything from friendly accompaniment, technical assistance in communicating declarations of will, breaking down architectural and other barriers, advice, or even delegated decision-making. The new system is not just a change in terminology that relegates traditional terms of "incapacity" and "guardianship," but a fundamental change in the paradigm that underpins the protection of people with disabilities in the exercise of their legal capacity.