Monday 13 March 2017

Informed consent for biomaterial usage in Russian law

Any competition of two persons’ interests can likely to be deemed as collision of some values protected, at the highest level, by a constitution. Although such a conflict is to be balanced by a legislator and anyone who enforce the law, one of rival interests groups is usually stronger thus becoming general rules of the law while competing interests form exceptions which tends to harmonize the whole legislative system.

Wednesday 8 March 2017

Common property in household communities

Couple of months ago, in November 2016, the Constitutional Court of Russia issued a decision on a controversial topic of legal regime of property which is due to serve to different households (such as roads or water pipelines) in ‘summer cottage’ communities (Russian text is availably here). Unfortunately, the Court skirted the main problem, answering the questions formally and avoiding delving into the essence of the relationships in question. So, what was it all about?

Friday 3 March 2017

The content of right of ownership on bodily material in Russia


Recently I made couple of posts on the controversial question whether tissues and cells are property according to current Russian law concluding with affirmative answer.  I'd like to continue developing this idea, diving into the problem of starting point of their existence as well as the content of the owner's right. 

Monday 27 February 2017

Consumers law and financial institutions

In the first Quarter Practise Review, issued by the Russian Supreme Court in the mid-February, one can find several decisions on consumer's relationship with banks or other financial institutions. I have already written a post on one of them, namely on a 'hardship' clause and modification of a loan contract, made in foreign currency. Here are the outlines of two others and some general conclusions...

Saturday 25 February 2017

On-line court proceedings coming soon...


A week ago Russian Parliament voted for pushing the Internet further in the litigation to make it more transparent. A draft to let all types of proceedings, including even criminal one, to be transmitted on the web site on-line, passed the lower Chamber of the Parliament. According to the draft, some general requirements should be fulfilled for the filming namely keeping order in the courtroom and prohibiting interfering the procedure. The main restriction would apparently be the necessity to get the court permission for shooting, the latter being reluctant for being filmed. 

Wednesday 22 February 2017

Currency fall is not hardship is Russia

Several days ago the Supreme Court of Russia issues its first quarterly review of its most important decisions, which had been made recently (Russian text is available on the official web site). The eighth judgment was about whether a plummeting fall of Russian currency because of Crimea crisis could be considered as hardship and thus led to conversion of a loan contract. The Court unsurprisingly gave a negative answer, confirming general reluctance to use ‘rebus sic stantibus’ doctrine. However some remarks in the ruling seem to leave a door open to use this clause as a ground for contract modification…

Sunday 19 February 2017

Biological cell products

On the 1st of January 2017 the new Law On Biological Cell Products took force to regulate procurement and preservation of human bodily material for medical therapy (art. 1). It was specifically mentioned that it did not cover not only blood donation or assisted reproductive technologies, but also circulation of biosamples for research purposes, thus being an analog for the European directives on advanced medical treatment.

Wednesday 15 February 2017

Is there a property right on human tissues and cells?


Is there a property right in human tissues and cells after separation from the body? The issue is being hotly debated throughout the Globe and today I'd like to outline few existing norms on the topic according to Russian law. 
In Russian legislation there are no general provisions on biomaterial after separation from a human body, in the Law “On protection of human health” (hereinafter – “the Law On Health Protection”) where they are expected to be located one can find only a mention that laboratory diagnostics is a kind of medical service (art. 2). 

Sunday 12 February 2017

The new law on real estate registry

On the 1st of January 2017 the new Law of Real Estate Registry took effect, abolishing a large quantity of acts which had been enacted since 1998 when general rules in this question were provided for the first time. As the law of 1998 was the the starting point for real estate registry in modern Russian history, it had been amended enormously often thus the general revision seems to be quite a reasonable step to take.

Friday 10 February 2017

Constitutional Court Decision to protect infringers

On the 13th of December 2016 the Constitutional Court of Russia made important decision on authors, patent and trademark law aiming to protect infringers whose punishment might be too severe according to existing rules. Russian Ministry of Justice have already made a proposal for amendments…

Tuesday 7 February 2017

A further step to electronic litigation

Due to some amendments and new acts as well as some improvements in the court system Internet site it is now possible to bring an action on-line not only in an Arbitrage court (which is mainly for business claims) but in General Jurisdictions courts also (which is for non-business disputes). An electronic action should be signed be an electronic signature, which can be made within 2 days for about 2000 rubles (something like $40), so it undoubtfully simplifies getting court protection for a broken right for anyone suing more than once. Although there are some weird soft bugs (for instance, nowadays the system accepts only PDF documents which have been previously printed and then scanned), they tend to be solved and anyway it solves a lot of time for lawyers and businesses.

Sunday 5 February 2017

The privacy and the law of proof

An audio of a conversation between parties to a contract can undoubtedly be a proof in a litigation amid them but does it matter whether both parties knew it was recorded? 

Thursday 2 February 2017

Mandatory complaints

From the 1st of July 2016 the amended Arbitrage Code has mandatorily prescribed to send a complaint to a counterpart prior to sue, in order to diminish the sheer number of cases that have to be ruled by court.

Tuesday 31 January 2017

The official service for power of attorney verification

On the 1st of January 2017 the amendments to the law on powers of attorney were enacted for greater protection to any third parties relying on these documents. It made the Russian Notary Chamber create and run the Internet site to let anyone check validity of the document. The service seems to be extremely useful thinking of simplicity of forgery of any kinds of written documents nowadays.

Sunday 29 January 2017

Human cloning in Russian law


Here is the link to my paper on www.Academia.edu on a quite controversial topic that is possibility of human cloning in Russian law. One should bear in mind that may ‘cloning’ not only mean ‘making a copy’ in a Dolly the sheep manner but also ‘editing’ the genome in therapy purposes. The article tends to prove its legality in Russia.

Friday 27 January 2017

A landmark decision on real property

Few days ago The Supreme Court of Russia made a remarkable decision on real estate, concerning some issues of what is block of flats as an object and how the right on a plot of land beneath it depend on the right on a flat (Russian text is available here).

Friday 13 January 2017

Introduction

Hello!
Here I am, setting up a new blog on Russian private law. Despite some political tensions between my country and the Western world as well as some (unfortunately traditional) economical turbulence I do believe that there are lots of people who think about doing business in Russia. Higher risks are often compensated with higher profits so with a little bit of luck and some knowledge in the law everything can start working well for you! Surprisingly I didn't find any regularly updated blog or site on the topic so I decided to fill the gap on my own.