Legal Analysis and Practical Proposals for Application of the Law on Inheritance by Contract

Introduction. For our country, the modern era is characterised by the rapid development and sophistication of the social relationships, especially in the field of economics and private property preservation as the basis for enhancing market relations. Over the past few years, new institutions and norms have been formed within the civil law of the Russian Federation, which officially stipulated the relationships already existing among the subjects. The most atypical innovation for the Russian legislation was integration of the new rules of inheritance based on the contractual relationships (Article 1140.1) into the Civil Code of the Russian Federation in 2019. Unfortunately, this institution has not become widely used in practice, probably due to the rather incorrect regulation of the rights and obligations of the parties to this legal relationship and their unequal position in obtaining the final result. Significant difficulties arise when using this norm in the context of inheritance of the agricultural lands, residential premises, joint property, etc. The study of the institution of inheritance by contract is highly relevant due to the fact that this norm has a potential to become a fairly strong basis for the formation of equal relationships of the parties in terms of the redistribution of property, but, taking into account the imperfection of legal regulation, it requires the detailed elaboration for its implementation into the objective reality. The aim of the research is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of this institution and develop the practical proposals for improving the legislation on inheritance contracts.

Materials and Methods. The following methods have been used in the research: the general scientific method of theoretical research, comparative analysis, formal-logical approach to the analysis of the legislation regulating the application of the contractual relationships in the frame of property inheritance. A review of the data on law enforcement and judicial practice in the research area has been provided.

Results. The paper identifies the problems of efficient application of the norms of inheritance by contract to the certain types of property, suggests the ways to improve the legislative norms that determine the legal status of counterparties, as well as the content of their powers. A number of proposals for adjusting the acting norms of inheritance by contract have been formulated. In particular, the authors propose to add a separate chapter referring to the inheritance by contract to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and include in it the norms, which ensure the possibility of preserving property that is the subject of the contract until the moment of contract coming into effect and which regulate the rules of inheriting the residential premises and agricultural lands in accordance with the same procedure. Within the research, it has been also proposed to legislatively stipulate the legal status of nasciturus and children conceived after the death of the testator by means of medical technologies (IVF, embryo cryopreservation, surrogacy, etc.), and the procedure of inheriting property by the spouses upon conclusion of the inheritance contract.

Discussion and Conclusion. The conducted research allowed the authors to identify the existing inaccuracies in the legislative regulation of the inheritance by contract and to determine further directions for studying and adjusting the theoretical and practical aspects of this institution. With respect to the foreign country examples of rule-making in the studied subject area, the trends in the formation of such rules of inheritance by contract were determined that would allow this rarely used practice an opportunity to become an acting procedure that contributes to strengthening the legal order in the frame of legal relationships on inheritance.

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