TESTAMENTARY REFUSAL IN CIVIL LAW OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION: LEGAL CHARACTERISTICS AND IMPLEMENTATION PROBLEMS

Abstract

The principle of freedom of will has been and remains to this day one of the fundamental principles of the current national inheritance law. Special significance in civil legal capacity is the right of subjects of inheritance relations to freely exercise their property rights and to dispose of things. The testamentary refusal (legacy) imposes a duty on the heir to fulfil certain property obligations. Nevertheless, in modern realities of testamentary refusal enforcement, problems are not excluded at all, and therefore require their resolution. Purpose: to identify legal characteristics of testamentary refusal and actual problems arising in inheritance relations, as well as to determine the best ways to solve these problems and the main directions for further improvement of national legislation in this area. Methods: empirical methods of comparison, description, interpretation; theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic. Specific scientific methods are used: legal-dogmatic and the method of interpreting legal norms. Results: the study of the current legislation regulating the institute of testamentary refusal in the Russian Federation allows to consider its historical development, to determine the legal characteristics of its emergence and content, as well as current problems arising in law enforcement practice. It is established that the problem of fulfilling the obligation to grant the legatee the right to use residential premises is of particular importance. The authors propose the general directions of improving the national legislation in order to overcome the problems associated with the application of testamentary refusal.

Keywords

• inheritance law
• inheritance
• will
• freedom of will
• rights of heirs
• testamentary refusal
• testamentary disposition
• legatee