In the year 2013 the important reform of civil law was performed in the Russian Federation. The reform was performed in 3 steps by passing the laws amending the Russian Civil Code within the year 2013. This overview provides a list of most important amendments which came or will come into legal force in 2013.
1. Federal Law N142-FZ dated July 02, 2013 entitled “On amendments to subsection 3 of Section I of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation”.
Comes into legal force on October 01, 2013.
The Law provides the following amendments:
- a new kind of real estate is provided - a united real estate complex. By this means a set of united by a common purpose buildings, structures and other properties that are inseparably linked either physically or technically or located at one land plot if the ownership is registered with EGRP (the Single State Register of Rights to Real Estate and Contracts) as a set of these objects in total as one immovable property;
- fruits, production and income earned from the use of a property, no matter who uses it, as a general rule belong to the property owner;
- the copyright holder, whose account was wrongly debited book-entry securities, has a right to claim a return of these securities from a person, who has these securities at his account.
2. Federal Law N100-FZ dated May 07, 2013 entitled “On amendments to subsection 4 and 5 of Section I and the Article 1153 of the Part 3 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation”.
Comes into legal force on September 01, 2013.
The Law provides the following amendments:
- a special article with respect to the consent of the contract performance is added;
- the imperative norm of obligatory written form of foreign trade contract is cancelled;
- the legal basis of legally relevant messages is provided;
- additional measures to protect the rights and legal interests of the counterparty within the contract which is performed by an unauthorized person are provided;
- a presumption is provided according to which the contract violating the requirements of the law or other legal act is considered by the general rule to be voidable, not void contract;
- it is illegal to claim the recognition of voidable contract to be void contract by the parties who approved it in past or their actions confirmed their intention to perform it;
- the legal basis of recognition and contestation of boards’ decisions is provided;
- the legal basis of irrevocable power of attorney is provided.
3. Federal Law N302-FZ dated December 30, 2012 entitled “On amendments to chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 of Section I of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation”.
Comes into legal force on March 01, 2013.
The Law provides the following amendments:
- the obligation of each party to act with good faith is provided;
- the actions in evasion of law with illegal purpose are prohibited as a form of law abuse;
- boards’ decisions are included in list of legal facts that are considered to be a basis of rights and obligations creation;
- a possibility of recognition as legally incapable the parties with mental disorder, recognized as legally incapable, but having abilities to understand the meaning of their actions and manage them with the help of third parties only is provided. It will allow for these parties to participate in civil commerce on a limited basis (incl. performing some contracts on their own).
- state registration of real estate contracts listed in Section II of the Civil Code, excluding the real estate rental contract;
- a possibility of compensation of damage caused by legal actions of public authorities and their officials is provided;
- a possibility of state registration of peasant (farm) household as a legal entity is provided.
This overview is prepared by MTIT legal company.
Any copies of this overview can be done only with the approval of MTIT, Ltd.