REGARDING TERMS FOR ACCEPTING THE INHERITANCE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of topical issues of the essence and temporal characteristics of the realisation of the right to inheritance. The temporal dimension of the general period for acceptance of inheritance is considered and emphasis is placed on the unequal approaches of the legislator in the norms regulating the general rules of the beginning of civil law periods and the beginning of the period for acceptance of inheritance. It is emphasized that from the point of view of civil law, this period belongs to preclusive periods, i.e. those with which the existence of the right itself is connected. The novelties related to the introduction of martial law regarding the duration of the terms for accepting inheritance, which were introduced by the relevant Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, were analyzed. Attention is focused on their critical assessment by the highest judicial body, taking into account the vertical dimension of the hierarchy of acts of civil legislation. It is emphasized that certain doctrinal conflicts of the very content of the right to restore the missed deadline for accepting the inheritance and providing an additional deadline for its acceptance. It is contemplated that expedient to consider cases on granting an additional term not as a claim, but as a separate proceeding, and it is also suggested to review the approach to determining the person who is the proper defendant for claims on granting an additional term for accepting inheritance. A systematic analysis of the legal norms the three-month inheritance acceptance period was carried out and the cases for which such a period is relevant were highlighted. It is emphasized the possibility of certain controversial moments that may occur in the case of the simultaneous presence of such legal facts as the acceptance of the inheritance by the heir within the three-month period and the court’s satisfaction of the claim for granting an additional period to the person who missed it for valid reasons. Through the prism of the application of such a principle of civil law as a principle of justice, including, and from the position of analogy of law, the possibility of re-applying to the court to grant an additional term for accepting the inheritance was considered.