Digital Civil Law in Bill No. 4/2025
Context of the Civil Code reform
Bill No. 4/2025 proposes one of the most comprehensive reforms to the Brazilian Civil Code since its enactment in 2002. Unlike the creation of a new legal instrument, the proposal seeks to promote a structural update of the system, incorporating social, technological, and jurisprudential transformations accumulated in recent decades. Developed from a preliminary draft prepared by a committee of legal experts, the text is currently under consideration in the Federal Senate, amidst technical and political debates, which highlights its provisional and constantly evolving nature.
The creation of Digital Civil Law
Among the most innovative aspects of the proposal is the creation of a Book VI dedicated to Digital Civil Law, which demonstrates the understanding that the virtual environment has ceased to be merely an accessory space and has become a field in its own right for the formation of legal, patrimonial, and existential relationships. It should be noted, however, that this is only one of several areas of change foreseen in the project, which encompasses broad changes in different areas of civil law.
Legal recognition of the digital environment
The inclusion of this new book is significant because it breaks with the logic of treating the digital world only through piecemeal adjustments. The project now expressly recognizes the digital environment as a space for civil action by individuals and establishes that acts, activities, and relationships developed through the internet, platforms, applications, automated systems, and other interactive technologies are also subject to civil law. With this, the reform seeks to offer systematic treatment to issues that are already part of daily life, but which until now have remained scattered among special legislation, jurisprudence, and doctrinal construction.
Principles of Digital Civil Law
Book VI starts from the idea that Digital Civil Law should strengthen private autonomy, preserve the dignity of the person, and guarantee property security in the virtual environment. Its foundations include privacy, data protection, informational self-determination, freedom of expression, inviolability of intimacy, digital accessibility, social inclusion, algorithmic transparency, and protection against discriminatory practices. The proposal, therefore, is not limited to regulating technology, but seeks to adapt traditional categories of civil law to the digital context.
Personality rights in the digital environment
In terms of personality rights, the project recognizes the rights of individuals in the digital environment and allows for instruments such as data exclusion, de-indexing, and removal of information that infringes on personality rights, provided that criteria related to the absence of public interest and potential harm to the individual are observed. There is also recognition of digital identity as an official means of identification in digital environments, separate from digital signatures, with requirements for security, interoperability, and data protection.
Digital legal situations and platform obligations
Another relevant point is the regulation of so-called digital legal situations, defined as interactions in the digital environment capable of generating rights, duties, and responsibilities between individuals, legal entities, and even automated systems. The bill also prohibits manipulative interfaces and imposes duties of transparency, responsible moderation, systemic risk assessment, and independent auditing on platforms, especially those with a wide reach. This represents an attempt to shift the debate from merely reacting to harm to a logic of prevention and governance of the digital environment.
Digital assets and inheritance
The proposal also addresses digital assets, recognizing them as intangible and immaterial assets with economic, personal, or cultural value, such as accounts, cryptocurrencies, miles, files, and other assets held in a virtual environment. Furthermore, it allows for their inheritance and regulates aspects related to digital inheritance, while preserving the confidentiality of communications and the privacy of third parties.
Artificial intelligence and civil liability
In the field of artificial intelligence, the project demands respect for personality rights, non-discrimination, transparency, auditability, and civil liability for damages caused. It also regulates the creation of images of living or deceased persons by AI, conditioning their use on consent and respect for the dignity, image, and legacy of the person portrayed.
Digital contracts and electronic acts
Finally, Book VI systematizes the execution of digital contracts, regulates electronic signatures, and incorporates electronic notarial acts into the Civil Code, consolidating at the legislative level practices that had already been developed in the extrajudicial environment. In this respect, the reform seeks to provide greater legal certainty to digital relationships without breaking with the classic foundations of private law.
Impacts and trends of the reform
In summary, Bill 4/2025 demonstrates that the reform of the Civil Code is not limited to updating traditional institutions, but seeks to recognize that contemporary civil life is deeply integrated into the digital environment. The creation of a separate Book for Digital Civil Law reveals the intention to reposition the Civil Code in light of the new social, economic, and technological dynamics that have come to structure private relations. Given this scenario, we will continue to closely monitor the progress of the bill and its legislative developments.
Article written by: Leonardo Neri and Nicoly Crepaldi.
REFERENCES:
Brazil. Federal Senate. Bill No. 4 of 2025. Provides for the updating of Law No. 10,406, of January 10, 2002 (Civil Code), and related legislation. Brasilia: Federal Senate, 2025. Available at: https://www25.senado.leg.br/web/atividade/materias/-/materia/166998. Accessed on: April 9, 2026.
DINIZ, Marcela. The Civil Code project is innovative in suggesting a specific book on digital law. Senate Radio, Brasilia, October 30, 2025. Available at: https://www12.senado.leg.br/radio/1/noticia/2025/10/30/projeto-do-codigo-civil-inova-ao-sugerir-livro-especifico-sobre-direito-digital. Accessed on: April 9, 2026
Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV). Digital law. Rio de Janeiro: FGV, 2025. Available at: https://justica.fgv.br/sites/default/files/2025-08/direito-digital.pdf Accessed on: April 9, 2026