Moratorium in Russian Civil Law: nature, application features and prospects of development regulation

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the institution of the moratorium in Russian Civil Law. Interest in it is due to the fact that in 2020, as one of the legal solutions to overcome the consequences of an emergency circumstance - the spread of coronavirus infection, as well as to mitigate the consequences of measures taken by the state to prevent its spread, a moratorium on initiating bankruptcy proceedings was introduced. The introduction of a new institution took place in a situation where the concept of «moratorium» was already used in a certain sense in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (as a deferment of the fulfillment of an obligation, established on the basis of a law by the Government of the Russian Federation, leading to a suspension of the limitation period), as well as in bankruptcy legislation (in all laws governing insolvency (bankruptcy), including the current one), where since 1992 the concept of «moratorium on satisfaction of creditors’ claims» has been used. In this regard, there is a need to consider the nature of the moratorium, the characteristics of various types of moratoriums, ascertaining the presence of both their common elements and the features of these moratoriums. Based on this task, the history of the emergence of the institute of moratorium in domestic law, as well as each type of moratorium, is considered. Concrete legal solutions have been proposed to improve the institution of a moratorium in Civil Law in general.