Un error de primer orden: la interpretación del cuarto orden hereditario

Abstract

Wrong interpretations can modify the content of statutes to the point of making them say what the lawmaker never intended. A good illustration of this is found in some jurists, who, since Law 29 of 1982 came into effect, have tried to limit the right to inherit to which the descendants of siblings of the deceased are entitled, when the deceased did not have any other closer relatives (this is the fourth order of succession). Such mistaken constructions intend to limit the right to inherit to the children of siblings, in a dangerously literal reading of article 1051 of Colombia’s Civil Code. Such a reading forgets that, according to article 1043 of the same Code, hereditary representation, in the descendants of the deceased’s siblings, always operates. This article shows the long history of the institution of hereditary representation, and underscores the grave mistake that is committed when the institution is curtailed.