Latest Tendencies of Wills’ Voidness Made in Violation of the Requirements Regarding the Form and Authenticating Procedure

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The article is focused on revealing the peculiarities of wills’ validness made in violation of the requirements regarding the form and authenticating procedure based on the analysis of legal doctrine and the current case law. The author has substantiated position that the invalidation of a will is a special method to protect the rights of inheritance, which in its essence is not identical to the protection of civil rights and interests by the court as the invalidation of the transaction. It is due to the scope of implementing the studied method of protection and the peculiarities of the will as a kind of unilateral transactions. The possibility of convalidation of a will’s nullity by the court has been denied, since it will lead to destabilization of property relations, as well as to numerous abuses by their participants. The author has additionally emphasized the difficulty of establishing conditions enshrined by law for the admission of a unilateral transaction, in particular: the transaction must correspond to the true will of the person who executed it; the notarization of the transaction was hindered by a circumstance that did not depend on the person’s will who executed it. The court’s decision will in any case be based on indirect evidence and assumptions. In addition, the plaintiffs in most cases are lawful heirs of this will, who are interested parties. The author of the paper criticizes the point of view regarding the will’s nullity certified by an official of a local self-government agency not according to the place of registration of the testate. In this case, the invalidity of legal transaction is artificially removed from the Law of Ukraine «On Local Self-Government in Ukraine», goes beyond the literal content of the Art. 1257 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, violates the principle of will’s freedom and justice as one of the general principles of civil law. It has been emphasized that formal, minor violations of the wills’ authenticating procedure cannot be considered as grounds for theirvalidness. Key words: inheritance law, hereditary legal relations, a will, a testate, validness, nullity, convalidation.