ABSENCE. — In juridical language, the term a. is sometimes used in the ordinary sense of non-presence, and sometimes in a special sense.
In the first sense, one speaks of a. and of absentees, in contrast to presence, those present, participants, etc., especially in the case of failure to be present or to participate in an act by someone who would normally be expected to take part in it (e.g. deliberations or other collegiate acts, judicial hearings, etc.); and, in canon law, also in the case of residence (v.) by the holder of an office that entails such an obligation.
In the second sense, absence exists when a person has no longer appeared at the place of his last domicile or last residence, and no further news of him is available, so that it is not known ubi sit et au sit. Civil laws generally lay down, for this eventuality, various provisions intended to protect the interests—especially familial and patrimonial—of the absentee, and also, particularly when the absence is prolonged and it consequently becomes increasingly probable that the absentee is no longer alive, the interests of those who may be presumed to be his successors in the event of his death. The measures established by civil law to regulate the fate of the absentee’s legal relationships are always such as to take into account the possibility that the absence may come to an end (cf. for Italy, art. 48 ff. of the Cod. civ. and art. 721 ff. of the Cod. proc. civ.; for the State of Vatican City, art. 20 ff. of the Cod. civ. and art. 842 ff. of the Cod. proc. civ.).
Absence ends if the absentee returns, or if his existence is proven, or conversely if his death is proven. In legislation that recognizes so-called presumed death, absence also ends with the declaration of presumed death. For the effects that absence and, above all, presumed death may have on marriage, V. LIGAMEN. Pio Ciprotti