I read your heading as a long-winded version of:

DIREITO [COM]
PT ausência declarada
EN presumption of death
From IATE

I believe the English equivalent is just this shortened version:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presumption_of_death

Death in absentia (or presumption of death) is a legal declaration that a person is deceased in the absence of remains (e.g., a corpse or skeleton) attributable to that person. Such a declaration is typically made when a person has been missing for an extended period of time without any evidence that the person is still alive, or when the circumstances surrounding a person's disappearance overwhelmingly support the belief that the person has died (e.g., an airplane crash).

My two cents :)

HIH cf. Jowitt's Dictionary of English Law