Gift Agreement: Topical Problems of Legal Regulation

Abstract

Introduction. The theoretical and practical importance of the contractual legal relationships, the specifics of their legal regulation in the present-day conditions imply a contract to be a driver of the dynamic processes of commodity exchange. Therefore, due to involvement of the increasing number of objects into the civil circulation and fostering freedom of competition, the role of a contract is also growing. At the same time, in recent times the special attention in the national Civil Law is being paid to creation of the legal construct ensuring development of the gratuitous relationships. In this regard, a gratuitous contract category and, in particular, a gift agreement category are of considerable interest. One of the objectives of today’s Civil Law is creation of the legal construct ensuring development of the above-mentioned gratuitous relationships. The Civil Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the Civil Code of the RF), although traditionally stipulating the certain types of gratuitous contracts, still leaves unsolved a number of issues: systematisation of gratuitous obligations, type composition, socially beneficial goals, etc. In the current legislation, the legal constructs of technical and humanitarian aid contracts are stipulated in the ambiguous way. The relationships comprising the element of gratuitousness related to charity, donation, patronage, grants, etc. need a clear legislative regulation. Meanwhile, the legal regulation of the gratuitous contacts in the current economic situation falls considerably behind the present day demands. Therefore, understanding the essence and legal nature of a gift agreement and its place in the present-day Civil Law of Russia is of particular interest. The aim of this study is to identify the most topical problems of the gift agreement legal regulation in the national legislation and difficulties in application practices thereof.Materials and Methods. The legal regulation designated for drawing up the gratuitous contracts was analysed, whereas the gift agreements among them were of particular interest. During the research, a combination of general and specific scientific methods of cognizing the legal reality were applied. The methods of analysis and synthesis, comparative legal analysis, as well as the dialectical method were used for writing the article, which made it possible to ensure the comprehensive study of the material under analysis, internal integrity of the study, as well as credibility and consistency of the research provisions.Results. It has been proved that the institution of gift-giving is in a state of constant legislative improvement. That is why, a number of provisions have been elaborated to foster the development of this institution in the national legislation.Discussion and Conclusions. The problems of the gift agreement legal regulation have been identified, including the law enforcement errors, which occupy a special place in the national judicial practices. All of the above-mentioned does not merely make the topic of the present study relevant, but also determines the main trends for improvement of the current Russian legislation referring to the gift agreement regulation.