Family law in modern Russia. Abstract: Family law of Russia, general characteristics Family law concept and characteristics

Chapter 23. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FAMILY LAW

Family law is recognized by most lawyers as an independent branch of law. But it is closely related to civil law. Civil law applies to family relations in cases where these relations are not regulated by family law. The main source of family law is the Family Code of the Russian Federation of 1995* It should be borne in mind that family relationships are a special area of ​​human relationships. F.M. Dostoevsky believed that three-quarters of a person’s happiness depends on how relationships develop in his family. Relationships in the family (such as tender loving relationships between spouses, parents and children, the willingness to sacrifice their personal interests for the benefit of a loved one, etc.) are of such a personal, intimate nature that they do not and cannot be regulated by legal norms. At the same time, the well-being of society, and its very existence, largely depends on how expedient and well the development of family relationships is (the birth and upbringing of children, their material support, measures to protect motherhood, the protection of children left without parents, etc.). P.). Therefore, the Family Code and other normative acts of family law regulate the basic provisions on the procedure for concluding and terminating a marriage, on the rights and responsibilities of spouses, on the procedure for establishing the origin of children, on the mutual rights and responsibilities of parents and children, on adoption.

* SZ RF.1996.No. 1.Art. 16.

Family law is a set of rules governing personal non-property and related property relations arising from marriage, kinship, adoption, as well as the adoption of children into a family for upbringing . The relations of family members, regulated in the norms of family law, appear before us in the form of family legal relations. In sociology under family is understood as a union of persons based on marriage, kinship, adoption of children for upbringing, characterized by a community of life, interests, and mutual care. In a legal sense, a family is a legal relationship. The rights and responsibilities of family members come first. Family legal relations, like any other, are revealed most fully when analyzing their subjects, objects, content and grounds for their occurrence.

Subjects of family legal relations are family members. These are spouses (a man and a woman who entered into marriage in the manner prescribed by law), relatives (persons descended from each other, for example, father and son, or having a common ancestor, for example, uncle and nephew), adopted children and adoptive parents, actual educators and pupils, stepfathers, stepmothers, stepsons and stepdaughters.

Objects of family legal relations are the actions of family members (for example, the actions of the father in paying alimony, the actions of parents in raising children) or things (for example, things that constitute the joint property of the spouses). And the content of family legal relations refers to the rights and responsibilities of family members. They may be of a non-property nature (for example, the rights and responsibilities of parents to raise children, the rights of spouses to determine their profession, place of residence, the rights of parents to determine the child’s name, etc.) or property nature (the right of common ownership of spouses to jointly acquired property, rights and obligations of family members to pay alimony).

The guiding principles on which the construction and regulation of family relationships are based are called the principles of family law. We list the main ones:

1. priority of state protection of family, motherhood, paternity and childhood in the Russian Federation;

2. building family relationships on feelings of mutual love and respect, mutual assistance and responsibility between spouses, parents and children, and other relatives;

3. the inadmissibility of arbitrary interference by anyone in family affairs;

4. ensuring the unhindered exercise of their rights by family members;

5. recognition of marriage concluded only in the civil registry office (registry office);

6. voluntary marriage between a man and a woman;

7. equality of spouses in the family;

8. resolution of intra-family issues by mutual agreement;

9. priority of family education of children, concern for their well-being and development;

10. the possibility of judicial protection of the rights of family members with priority to the interests of minors and disabled citizens;

11. a ban on any form of restriction of the rights of citizens upon marriage based on social, racial, religious, national or linguistic affiliation.

There are a large number of variations in the list of principles for regulating family legal relations described by legal science. Therefore, only the basic principles of family law are listed above.

In Russia, the legal rights of family members can be limited only on the basis of federal law. Moreover, this is possible only to the extent necessary to protect the morals, health, rights and interests of other citizens.

Family law

In modern Russia, various aspects of family relations are regulated by:

1. international legal acts;

2. Constitution of the Russian Federation;

3. Family Code;

4. Civil Code;

5. Code of Civil Procedure;

6. Housing Code;

7. Criminal Code;

8. federal laws;

9. regulatory acts of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

The current Family Code was adopted by the State Duma on December 8, 1995, and it came into force on March 1, 1996. The provisions of the Russian Constitution had a great influence on the modern edition of the code. The country's Basic Law declared man, his rights and freedoms to be the highest value, proclaimed state protection of motherhood, childhood and family, and also secured the right of citizens to own and dispose of private property.

The provisions of the civil code most often apply to property and personal non-property relations between family members that are not regulated by family law.

General characteristics of family law

All people are someone's children, parents, relatives. But not many people enjoy the rights provided by family law. In addition, marriage includes a set of responsibilities that are not always known to young people entering into marriage. This is why studying family law is necessary.

Subject and method of family law

Family law is a branch of law that regulates marriage and family relations.

Article 2 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation defines the scope of these legal relations:

1. conditions and procedure for marriage;

2. termination of marriage and recognition of it as invalid;

3. personal non-property and property relations between spouses, parents and children, adoptive parents and adopted children, other relatives and other persons;

4. forms and procedure for placing children without parental care into families.

Property relations mean alimony obligations of former spouses, parents and children, other family members, as well as division of property upon divorce.

A “cell of society” is a complex set of material, spiritual and psychological connections, many of which do not accept legal regulation. Only the most important aspects of family relationships are regulated by law.

The main functions of the family are:

1. procreation;

2. raising children;

3. joint farming;

4. mutual moral and material support;

5. maintaining personal connections between relatives.

The family law method operates with a set of techniques and ways in which legal norms influence family relationships. In legal science, this method is defined as permissive-imperative.

The permissibility of family law regulation is due to the fact that the participants in these relations are free to act within the framework of their interests. But at the same time, family legislation contains imperative norms that strictly regulate the conditions for citizens to marry, establishing obstacles to entering into such a union, the procedure and reasons for deprivation of parental rights, the adoption procedure, etc.

The essence of family law is manifested not only through the specifics of its subject and method, it also has a number of other specific features.

Specifics of family relationships

1. The relations that form the subject of regulation of family law are characterized by a special subject composition. The circle of persons who can be their participants is clearly defined by family law. Family legal relations involve not just individuals, but citizens who have a special family legal status - spouse, child, parent, grandmother, grandfather, etc.

2. The basis of family legal relations is made up of specific legal facts - marriage and kinship, motherhood, paternity, adoption, etc. Despite the fact that the basis for the emergence of some family legal relations are contracts and agreements, nevertheless, the presence of marriage or kinship (a connection equivalent to it) is a necessary prerequisite for their existence.

3. A characteristic feature of family legal relations is their ongoing nature. 4. Family relationships are characterized by strict individualization of their participants, their indispensability in these relationships by other persons. Family rights and obligations are “non-negotiable”, not transferable either by universal succession (inheritance) or by agreement of the parties. In family law there are no such institutions as assignment of claims and transfer of debt.

5. Since in family relationships it is impossible to replace their participants, any family relationships (property or personal non-property) acquire a personal character. However, the personal nature of the relationships that develop in the family is determined not only by the fact that personal and property rights and obligations are inseparable from the personality of the authorized person.

In terms of their content, family relationships are predominantly personal in nature and only then property. Personal relations have a priority nature, since property relations are always connected with them and follow from them. Personal relationships largely determine the content of the rules governing property relations. For example, the legislator, taking into account the influence of personal factors (attachments, feelings, emotions, etc.) on the process of concluding a marriage contract or alimony agreement, sets special restrictions. “Property relations in the family, although important, are derived from personal ones, since they arise only in the presence of the latter and are designed to serve them”2.

6. Family relationships have a special personal and trusting character, since the main place in them is occupied by personal connections of family members. “The essence of a family legal relationship is such that it always includes a personal element, regardless of the target orientation of the legal relationship, its nature and type. Moreover, the presence of this element is not necessarily associated with the personal rights of participants in a family legal relationship. It exists independently, regardless of the personal rights of the subjects...” The personal and fiduciary nature of the norms of family law regulating both personal and property relations constitutes their core, the essence that leaves its mark on all family legal institutions.

The features of family relations discussed above make it possible to distinguish them from the general mass of property and personal legal relations into a separate sphere - an independent subject of regulation of family law.

Features of the method of family law regulation

The characteristic properties of the relationships that form the subject of family law regulation directly affect the method of regulation. The method of legal regulation in the theory of law is understood as “techniques of legal influence, their combination, characterizing the use in a given area of ​​social relations of one or another set of legal instruments, means of legal influence.” Due to the fact that the object of the regulatory influence of law is not a random accumulation of relations, but their system, the complex of legal means of influence, in turn, is a set of elements related to each other, although varying in a specific ratio.

To a first approximation, the family law method can be characterized as permissive-imperative. In terms of its impact on social relations, the family law method is permissible. “In most cases, the state provides participants in family legal relations with the opportunity to choose their own model of behavior in order to satisfy their vital interests and needs, reserving the right to determine the framework of appropriate behavior in mandatory regulations.” Modern family legislation, unlike the previous ones, makes rights a priority. Permissions lead in quantitative terms among all other family law regulations. However, the number of imperative regulations is still large (relations arising in connection with marriage, termination of marriage and recognition of its invalidity; personal legal relations between parents and children; relations regarding the adoption of a child, etc.).

At the same time, the characteristics of the method of family law regulation are far from being exhausted by resolving the issue of the predominance of dispositive or imperative norms. The ways and means of influencing family relationships are very diverse. In addition to permissions, which are a priority way of regulating family relations, the arsenal of methods of influence of family law also includes prohibitions, norms containing instructions obliging the performance of certain actions; rules intended to clarify, as well as the protection of family rights and responsibility for failure to fulfill or improper fulfillment of obligations as unique ways of regulating family relations.

Prohibitions have certainty, are clearly expressed in legal acts, and apply to specific actions and behavior. Depending on the form of expression, prohibitions are divided into direct and indirect.

Direct prohibitions are prohibitions in which the will of the legislator is expressed clearly and openly. Deviations from direct prohibitions are possible only in cases provided for by law. So, in paragraph 2 of Art. 116 of the RF IC contains a direct prohibition on the impossibility of recovering alimony received without sufficient grounds. The same rule provides for exceptions when reverse collection of alimony is possible:

if the court decision to collect alimony was canceled due to the recipient of the alimony reporting false information or providing forged documents;

if the agreement on the payment of alimony is declared invalid due to its conclusion under the influence of deception, threats or violence on the part of the recipient of the alimony;

when a court verdict establishes the fact of falsification of a court decision, agreement on the payment of alimony or a writ of execution, on the basis of which alimony was paid.

Indirect prohibitions are prohibitions, the content of which leads to the conclusion that any action is inadmissible. Exceptions to these are provided by law. According to paragraph 1 of Art. 11 of the RF IC, marriage is concluded after a month from the date of filing the application with the registry office, which is an indirect prohibition to register a marriage before the expiration of the specified period. At the same time, the legislator allows for the possibility of reducing or increasing the monthly period in the presence of valid reasons or special circumstances.

Permissions - permission to perform actions recorded in the norms of family law.

Permissions, unlike prohibitions, are addressed in addition to the participants in family relations to legal entities (guardianship and trusteeship authorities, the court), are less defined and are closely related to procedural norms.

According to the form of expression, permissions can also be direct or indirect.

Direct permissions are those in which permissions are expressed openly. So, paragraph 1 of Art. 1 of the RF IC provides the opportunity to conclude a marriage contract both before the state registration of marriage and at any time during the marriage.

Indirect permissions are instructions, the content of which indicates the possibility of certain behavior. For example, in paragraph 1 of Art. 64 of the RF IC states that “parents are the legal representatives of their children and act in defense of their rights and interests in relations with any individuals and legal entities, including in courts without special powers.”

Along with prohibitions and permissions, family law norms contain instructions for performing certain actions. So, in paragraph 5 of Art. 25 of the RF IC establishes that the court is obliged, within three days from the date of entry into legal force of the court decision on divorce, to send an extract from this decision to the registry office at the place where the marriage was registered.

Methods for regulating family relationships also include clarification rules. For example, in Art. 14 of the RF IC explains who is included in the circle of close relatives between whom marriage is not allowed; in paragraph 1 of Art. 27 of the RF IC defines the fictitiousness of a marriage.

The principles of family law should be understood as the ideas enshrined in family law, the fundamental principles in accordance with which the rules of family law regulate personal and property relations.

The principles of family law include the following:

1) the principle of protection of family, motherhood and childhood by the state;

2) the principle of prohibiting any form of restriction of the rights of citizens upon marriage and in family relationships on the basis of social, racial, national, linguistic or religious affiliation;

3) the principle of equal rights of spouses in the family;

4) the principle of voluntariness of a marriage between a man and a woman;

5) the principle of recognizing a marriage registered with the registry office;

6) the principle of monogamy (monogamy);

7) the principle of equality of the legal status of children born in marriage and children born from parents who are not married to each other;

8) the principle of priority of family education of children, concern for their well-being and development;

9) the principle of priority protection of the rights and interests of minors and disabled family members.

The task of family law is to protect the family, motherhood, fatherhood and childhood. It is aimed at strengthening the family, building family relationships on feelings of mutual love and respect, mutual assistance and responsibility to its members, the inadmissibility of anyone’s interference in family affairs, ensuring the unhindered exercise by family members of their rights, and the possibility of judicial protection of these rights.

The regulation of family relations is based on the following principles:

  • recognition by the state only of marriages concluded in civil registry offices;
  • voluntariness of marriage between men and women;
  • equality of rights of spouses in the family;
  • resolution of intrafamily issues by mutual agreement;
  • priority of family education of children;

* - concern of the state and parents for the welfare and development of children;

  • declaring priority protection of the rights and interests of minors and disabled family members;
  • prohibition of any form of restriction of the rights of citizens upon marriage and in family relationships on the basis of social, racial, national, linguistic and religious affiliation;
  • restriction of the rights of citizens in the family only on the basis of federal laws to the extent necessary in order to protect the morals, health, rights and legitimate interests of other family members and other citizens.

Family law

Family law establishes:

  • conditions and procedure for marriage;
  • conditions for terminating a marriage and recognizing it as invalid;
  • personal non-property and property relations between spouses, parents and children;
  • relationships between other relatives and other persons;
  • forms and procedures for placing children without parental care in the family.

Family legislation is based primarily on the fundamental provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

Article 7 of the Constitution establishes state support for family, motherhood, fatherhood and childhood.

Article 23 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation provides a citizen with the right to privacy, personal and family secrets.

Article 38 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation establishes state protection of motherhood, childhood and family. It establishes the equal right and duty of parents to care for their children and their upbringing.

Able-bodied children over 18 years of age must take care of disabled parents.

Family legislation includes the Family Code of the Russian Federation, adopted by the State Duma on December 8, 1995, other federal laws adopted in accordance with it, as well as laws of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

If property and personal non-property relations between family members are not regulated by family law, then civil law is applied, provided that it does not contradict the essence of family relations. An integral part of family law are, according to paragraph 4 of Art. 15 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, generally recognized principles and norms of international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation.

Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) grants men and women of full age the right, without any limitation on account of race, nationality or religion, to marry and found a family. They are given the same rights upon marriage, during marriage and at the time of its dissolution.

Marriage is possible only with the free and full consent of both parties to the marriage.

The family is the basic unit of society and has the right to protection from society and the state.

These same provisions are actually reproduced in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), Art. 10. In particular, this article calls on states to provide special protection and assistance to the family, especially during its formation and while it bears responsibility and care for minor children and their upbringing. The same provisions are also reproduced in:

  • International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - Art. 23 (1966);
  • Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1981);
  • Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989);
  • Convention on the Nationality of Married Women (1958).

Exercise and protection of family rights

Each family member, at his own discretion, disposes of his rights that arise from family relationships, including the right to protect these rights.

At the same time, the law (Article 7 of the Russian Federation Family Code) also establishes the limits of these rights: when exercising your rights, you cannot violate the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of other family members and other citizens.

To protect their rights, a person can go to court.

You can download ready-made answers for the exam, cheat sheets and other educational materials in Word format at

Use the search form

§ 1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FAMILY LAW Objectives and principles of family law

relevant scientific sources:

  • Answers to the exam on the history of state and law of foreign countries

    | Answers for the test/exam | 2017 | Foreign countries| docx | 0.48 MB

  • Answers on the history of law and state of foreign countries

    | Answers for the test/exam | 2017 | Foreign countries| docx | 0.46 MB

    1. Society of the ancient East: general characteristics of the institutions of law and state. 2. Public law of ancient Egypt. 3. Court and process in Ancient Egypt 4. Basic institutions of private law in Ancient

  • Fundamentals of Roman private law. Tutorial

    Nizhny Novgorod - 2000 | Tutorial | 2000 | Russia | docx | 0.21 MB

  • Answers to the exam on Family Law of the Russian Federation

    | Answers for the test/exam| 2016 | Russia | docx | 0.12 MB

    1. Subject and method of family law. Principles of family law. 2. Sources of family law. The relationship between family and civil legislation. The relationship between family and civil

  • Answers to the Family Law Exam

    | Answers for the test/exam| 2016 | Russia | docx | 0.11 MB

    Questions for the family law exam The concept and subject of family law. Features of marriage and family relations. Features of the family law method. Principles of family law. The concept and signs of marriage.

  • Answers on the History of State and Law of Foreign Countries

    | Answers for the test/exam | 2017 | Foreign countries| docx | 0.51 MB

Family law - This is an independent branch of Russian law, which is a set of legal norms regulating personal property and non-property relations between citizens, provided for by family law.

The subject of family law is relationships clearly defined by family law, namely relationships:

  • o regarding marriage, termination of marriage and invalidation;
  • o personal non-property and property relations between family members: spouses, parents and children (adoptive parents and adopted children), and in cases and within the limits provided for by family law, between other relatives and other persons;
  • o regarding the placement into a family of children left without parental care.

Family legal relations are subject to very limited legal regulation, since the processes of creating and existing a family lie on a basis that is not subject to the state and society - personal deep feelings, love between a man and a woman, parents and children, mutual understanding and responsibility for each other’s fate. The contact of morality, morality and law in the plane of family relations makes their border blurry and subtle.

To distinguish family legal relations from all possible relations, their characteristic features are outlined in the legal literature.

So, family legal relations are ongoing, those. are of a long-term nature (marriage is concluded to create a strong long-term union, family relations, even in the case of deprivation of parental rights, are terminated only by death, payment of alimony is a long-term obligation).

Another characteristic feature of family relationships is multi-subjectivity and peculiarities of connections between subjects family law among themselves. Family legal relations arise between people related by blood, property, adoption, guardianship, or adoption of a child into the family. In addition, the subjects of family law are government bodies and institutions (mainly guardianship and trusteeship authorities and institutions for the residence and upbringing of orphans). It is practically unthinkable for a person to have a situation in which he would not be a subject of family relations: in this case, he should not have relatives, a spouse, he should not be kept in an organization for orphans and children left without parental care, or be an employee of such an organization or guardianship authorities.

The current legislation does not define the concept of “family”. “The cell of society”, “the basis”, “the building block of the social system”; Everyone is free to determine the content of this word for themselves. In a legal sense, it is worth agreeing with the following definition: "Family - a small group of people based on marriage or consanguinity, whose members are bound by a common life, mutual moral responsibility and mutual assistance."

The definition of family, no matter how theorists interpret it, cannot be distinguished from the close, intimate interaction of several individuals, therefore the concept of “family” is not legal and cannot be enshrined in law. In this regard, one of the criteria for family legal relations is their personal character.

In addition, as characteristics of family legal relations, one-sidedness of most family legal relations, the inseparability of family rights and responsibilities from the individual and some others.

In the science of family law, there is an active debate about the principles of this branch, generated by the wording of Art. 1 of the RF IC, the name of which sounds like “Basic principles of family legislation,” and part 3 of which contains a list of principles for regulating family relations. After the RF IC came into force, theorists inevitably faced the question of the identity of the concepts of “principles” and “fundamentals”.

In resolving the dilemma, it is worth agreeing with the opinion of T.V. Shershen that the content of the principles of family law inevitably reflects the development of family law. The inclusion of the principles of family law in one of the parts of the article of the Code of the Russian Federation, dedicated to the fundamentals of family law, is fundamentally wrong, to the same extent as the identification of these two concepts. The principles of family law are the guiding ideas underlying legal regulation, law enforcement and the construction of family legal relations. The principles are developed by the science of family law - a more dynamic and mobile phenomenon in comparison with rule-making, and on their basis the basic principles are derived and found their legislative enshrinement.

Due to the fact that there are a large number of variations in the list of principles for regulating family legal relations described by the science of family law, to facilitate the task of presentation, we allow ourselves to focus on the basic principles of family law. Among the latter are:

  • o priority of state protection of family, motherhood, paternity and childhood in the Russian Federation;
  • o building family relationships on feelings of mutual love and respect, mutual assistance and responsibility to the family of all its members;
  • o the inadmissibility of arbitrary interference by anyone in family affairs;
  • o ensuring the unhindered exercise by family members of their rights;
  • o recognition of marriage concluded only in civil registry offices (hereinafter referred to as registry offices);
  • o voluntary marriage between a man and a woman;
  • o equality of rights of spouses in the family;
  • o resolution of intrafamily issues by mutual agreement;
  • o priority of family education of children, concern for their well-being and development;
  • o ensuring the possibility of judicial protection of the rights of family members with priority protection of the rights and interests of minors and disabled family members;
  • o prohibition of any form of restriction of the rights of citizens upon marriage and in family relationships based on social, racial, national, linguistic or religious affiliation.

Accordingly, the legal rights of family members, like other rights of citizens of the Russian Federation, can be limited only on the basis of federal law and only to the extent necessary in order to protect the morals, health, rights and interests of citizens.

The normative acts that make up the family legislation of the Russian Federation are the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the IC of the Russian Federation, the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as federal laws of the Russian Federation, by-laws, regulatory acts of constituent entities of the Russian Federation and international treaties of the Russian Federation.

The Constitution of the Russian Federation had a significant influence in the creation of the modern edition of the RF IC. Provisions of the fundamental law of the country, declaring man, his character and freedom to be the highest value; proclaiming state protection of motherhood, childhood and family; securing private property are reflected in the RF IC.

The RF IC, already the fourth since 1918, is the main normative act regulating family legal relations. The code consists of 170 articles, divided into eight sections reflecting all institutions of family law:

  • o general provisions;
  • o conclusion and termination of marriage;
  • o rights and obligations of spouses;
  • o rights and responsibilities of parents and children;
  • o alimony obligations of family members;
  • o forms of education for children left without parental care;
  • o application of family law to family relationships involving foreigners and stateless persons;
  • o final provisions of family law.

The RF IC was adopted by the State Duma on December 8, 1995, but came into force only on March 1, 1996. Thus, the provisions of the RF IC apply to legal relations that arose after March 1, 1996, i.e. from the moment it came into force, and to relationships of a long-term nature that arose before the specified date and continued to exist after the entry into force of the code (for example, the legal side of the relationship between spouses who got married on January 30, 1994 and continue to live together married life after 1 March 1996).

Civil legislation is applied to property and personal non-property relations between family members that are not regulated by family law insofar as this does not contradict the essence of family relations (Article 4 of the RF IC). In this regard, a certain share of legal regulation falls on the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which establishes the legal grounds for declaring a person incompetent, regulating contractual relations ("marriage contract"), inheritance, copyrights, etc.

Among the federal laws that make up the regulatory framework of family law, special attention should be paid to the Federal Law of April 24, 2008 No. 48-FZ “On Guardianship and Trusteeship” and the Federal Law of November 15, 1997 No. 143-FZ “On Civil Status Acts”.

Guardianship is a form of placement for children under the age of fourteen (minor citizens) and citizens recognized by the court as incompetent, in which citizens (guardians) appointed by the guardianship and trusteeship authority are the legal representatives of the wards and perform all legally significant actions on their behalf and in their interests (purchase of property, disposal of property, representation of interests in government bodies and courts, etc.).

In its turn, guardianship - This is a form of arrangement for minor citizens aged fourteen to eighteen years and citizens limited by the court in legal capacity, in which citizens (trustees) appointed by the guardianship and trusteeship authority are obliged to provide minor wards with assistance in the exercise of their rights and performance of duties (from advice to legally significant actions ), protect minor wards from abuse by third parties, and also give consent to adult wards to commit actions in accordance with civil law. Persons for whom guardianship or trusteeship has been established are called wards.

Legislation on guardianship and trusteeship establishes: the legal status of guardianship and trusteeship bodies (their tasks and powers), guardians and trustees; legal regime of the property of wards (peculiarities of their disposal, security, etc.); measures of liability for failure of guardians and trustees, guardianship authorities to fulfill their duties and some other issues.

Federal Law No. 143-FZ of November 15, 1997 “On Acts of Civil Status” determines: the bodies that carry out state registration of acts of civil status and the procedure for such registration; the procedure for the formation and storage of books of state registration of acts of civil status (registry books); procedure for correcting, changing, restoring and canceling civil status records.

Civil status acts - actions of citizens or events affecting the emergence, change or termination of rights and obligations, as well as characterizing the legal status of citizens (Article 3 of the Federal Law of November 15, 1997 No. 143-FZ “On Acts of Civil Status”), namely: birth, marriage, divorce, adoption, establishment of paternity, change of name and death.

Among the international legal acts regulating family legal relations, one can name the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the International Covenant of December 16, 1966 on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant of December 16, 1966 on Civil and Political Rights, the PLO Convention on the Rights child (approved by the UN General Assembly on November 20, 1989), etc.