ABSENCE. - In legal language the term a. is sometimes used in the common 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, those who have intervened, etc., especially in the case of failure to be present or to participate in an act by those who normally should take part in it (e.g., resolutions or other collegial acts, court hearings, etc.), and, in canon law, also in the case of violation of the obligation of residence (v.) by the holder of an office which entails such an obligation.
In the second sense, however, a. occurs when a person has not been seen again in the place of his last domicile or last residence, and no further news of him is received, so that it is not known ubi sit et an sit. Civil laws usually lay down, for this case, various rules designed to protect the interests (especially family and patrimonial) of the absentee, and also, particularly when the a. is prolonged and it therefore 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 which civil law provides to regulate the fate of the absentee’s legal relationships are always such as to take into account the possibility that the a. may cease (cf. for Italy, arts. 48 et seq. of the Civil Code and arts. 721 et seq. of the Code of Civil Procedure; for the State of the Vatican City, arts. 20 et seq. of the Civil Code and arts. 842 et seq. of the Code of Civil Procedure).
The a. ceases if the absentee returns or his existence is proved, or conversely if his death is proved. In legislations which admit the so-called presumed death, the a. also ceases with the declaration of presumed death. For the effects which absence and especially presumed death may have on marriage, V. LIPINO Cipriotti