Guarantees of the Right to Housing: A Comparison of Syrian and Russian Legislation

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the topical problem in civil law in Russia and Syria, i.e., the right of ownership of residential premises, its registration and methods of protection. The paper presents the results of a comparison of regulatory support and the procedure for state registration of rights to housing in Russia and Syria. Similar and distinctive features are defined, urgent issues of the legislation are revealed. The author formulates proposals for amending the Syrian legislative framework in order to improve the process of registering the right to housing, taking into account the Russian experience. In particular, it was concluded that the Syrian legislation needs to be supplemented with rules governing the right of ownership and other real rights to real estate associated with residential premises. Certain legal provisions can be borrowed from the Russian law. In addition, issues of ownership, especially for residential real estate, should be regulated by special rules due to the essentially special status of residential premises in comparison with other real estate objects. It has been established that the current Syrian Civil Code does not adequately regulate issues related to ownership and registration of rights to residential premises. For this reason, the author believes that there is an urgent need to develop housing legislation in Syria. It is necessary to develop special provisions that would deal specifically with the rights to residential premises.