Changes in the Civil Сode of the Russian Federation effective 01 November 2013. International Private Law.
Implemented on 30 September 2013 Changes to Civil Сode No. 260-FS became effective on 01 November 2013 and refers to Chapter VI, Part III, of the document (International Private Law). Hereafter are the most important changes.
Back referencing option has been extended (talking about situations when RF Legislation refers to the foreign legislation, with it having no direct regulation, but referring back to RF or the third country legislation): back referencing is to be accepted when foreign legislation refers to RF legislation defining the status of a natural person. (Art. 1190 RF Civil Code)
Changes refer to the content of the foreign law norms identification when applied in RF Court: when engaged into operation in RF Courts foreign legislation is no longer to be proven by the parties, but to be presented to the Court. (Art.1191 RF Civil Code).
The Reservation to the public order, by which the norms of foreign legislation are not to be applied in case there might be a contradiction of consequences to the Rule of RF Law; it has been extended with the notion of a relationship pattern being complicated with the foreign elements; consideration of this pattern expands the discretion of the court (Art. 1193 RF Civil Code)
Norms referring to the application of law on legal entities has been changed; creditors are able to choose the applicable legislation to prosecute for its obligations the founders (or participants) of the foreign organization operating in Russia, (Article 1202 RF Civil Code); when establishing the legal entity, parties will be able to choose the applicable legislation to regulate their relationship (Art. 1214 RF Civil Code).
Parties legally bound by the property relationship will be able to choose the legislation applied when the right of ownership to movable property arises and terminates (Article 1205, 1205.1, 1206, RF Civil Code)
There are changes introduced to application of the legislation to the form of transaction: the form of transaction shall be in compliance with RF legislation or the legislation of the country where the transaction is carried out, in order to be recognized (Article 1209 RF Civil Code). Therefore the transaction falls under RF legislation in case the transaction or arising, transfer, limitation or termination of the right within it must be registered in RF. The change doesn’t affect the current norm when immovable property transactions fall under the legislation of the country of location; for the immovable property listed in RF Registry, the transactions fall under the RF legislation.
Norms referring to the applicable legislation to the parties in the agreement have been hammered out: in case the parties haven’t established the applicable legislation the norms will allow determining the prevailing law of certain country (Article 1211 RF Civil Code). The parts in the complex agreement might be assigned to the different legislations (previously the legislation had to apply to the whole agreement). The list of obligations falling under the Imperative Norm of a certain country has been extended; the parties in the agreement have no option of applicable legislation to choose. Non-contractual relationships have been limited in the applicable legislation choice (Article 1210 RF Civil Code).
Additional guarantees have been established for the consumers’ protection in their relationship with foreign elements (Article 1216 RF Civil Code).
When the credit right are transferred from one person to another by the common rule, the legislation applied will remain the same as in relationship of the initial creditor and new creditor (Article 1261.1 RF Civil Code).
The new article is introduced in regulation of applied legislation to the representation relationship (Article 1217.1 RF Civil code). The procedure of the law to be applied has been defined for the different kinds of representation: representation in property transaction, representation in court, including arbitration court. The article defines the Applicable Legislation of a certain country that is to regulate the modality of agreement, its term and the legal power of the representative, etc.
The article 1219 of FR Civil Code referring to the law on infliction of harm obligations has been extended; in case the inflictor of harm and complainant are bound to the contractual relationship and the obligation on infliction of harm is closely connected to the contract, the legislation will remain the same as applied to that particular contract.
From now on parties have been given an option of the pre-trial agreement on the infliction of harm obligation and unjust right enrichment, without involving the court procedure (Article 1223.1 RF Civil Code).
Article 1222 of RF Civil Code referring to the law applied to the obligations in unjust competition has been extended: the application of legislation of the country which market might be affected by the unfair competition has been added. The applicable legislation is defined by the norms of infliction of harm obligation or unjust enrichment in case the unjust competition affects single person only. Parties are prohibited to choose the applicable legislation.