Between the protection of vulnerable groups and private autonomy: the mandatory separation of assets regime and the personality rights of the elderly in the contemporary interpretation of Precedent 377

Abstract

The accelerated aging of the population constitutes one of the most significant demographic transformations of the 21st century, producing direct impacts on the structure of private legal relationships and demanding hermeneutic reinterpretations of traditional Civil Law institutions. This article analyzes the imposition of the mandatory separation of property regime on elderly persons, as set forth in Article 1,641, item II, of the Civil Code, in light of personality rights and existential autonomy. The research adopts a qualitative, juridical-dogmatic approach, employing the deductive method and proceeding from constitutional premises to a critical examination of the infra-constitutional norm. The study draws on a bibliographic review of both national and foreign legal scholarship, as well as jurisprudential analysis, with particular focus on the interpretation given to Precedent No. 377 of the Federal Supreme Court, understood as a potential vector for a civil-constitutional reinterpretation of the imposed property regime. It concludes that the legal protection of elderly persons cannot be confined to abstract presumptions of vulnerability grounded in ageism, but must instead take on a promotional character with respect to human dignity, replacing broad-based restrictions with proportionate and concrete protective mechanisms.