Features of the legal regime governing the personal property of spouses in Russia

Abstract

The article analyzes the current state of doctrine and law enforcement practice on one of the most pressing problems of modern family law — the regime of spouses’ personal property. Currently, there are no serious doctrinal studies on this issue. A uniform practice of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on some problems has not been established, on others it raises more questions than answers. The authors of the article propose to start from the understanding of marriage as a kind of economic union of a man and a woman and make an attempt to develop an approach to determining the fate of income from the use of personal property of each spouse, as well as the proceeds from the sale of such property, that is understandable and convenient both for the spouses themselves and for third parties entering into property legal relations with the spouses. It seems that the registration of a marriage should lead to the consolidation of any property acquired during the marriage, with the exception of that which is directly listed in the Family Code of the Russian Federation. The authors insist that the exceptions to the general rule are not subject to broad interpretation in this case. Thus, both the income received from the use of the personal assets of each of the spouses, and the proceeds from the sale of such assets, should enter into common joint ownership. This approach does not diminish, however, the right of any of the spouses to demand from the court, when dividing the property, deviations from the principle of equality of the spouses’ shares in the acquired property. This takes into account the contribution of each of them to the creation and augmentation of common property, including through the investment of income received from the use and sale of personal assets.