The Legal and Contractual Regime of the Spouses' Property.

 

The legal regime of the spouses' property shall be the regime of their joint property. The legal regime of the spouses' property shall operate, unless otherwise is stipulated by the marriage contract.

The rights of the spouses to possess, use and dispose of property which is joint property of the members of a peasant (of a farmer's) economy, shall be defined by  the Civil Code.

The Spouses' Joint Property

  The property acquired by the spouses during their marriage, shall be their joint property.

To the property, acquired by the spouses during their marriage (to the spouses' joint property) shall be referred the incomes of each of the spouses from his labour activity, from his business activity and from the results of his intellectual activity, pensions and allowances, received by both of them, and also the other monetary receipts, which are not specially target-oriented (sums of material assistance, those paid out in compensation for a loss inflicted by disablement because of a grave injury or because of another damage done to the health, etc.). The spouses' joint property shall also be the movable and the immovable things and securities, acquired at the expense of their joint incomes, participation shares, deposits and shares in capital put into credit institutions or into other kinds of commercial organizations, and any other property acquired by the spouses in the period of their marriage, regardless of the name of which of the spouses it was acquired or the name of which of the spouses the monetary means were put in.

The right to the spouses' joint property shall also be enjoyed by the spouse who kept the house or who looked after the children in the period of the marriage, or who did not have an independent income because of other valid reasons.

                              The Property of Each of the Spouses

The property which belonged to each of the spouses before his entering into the marriage, and also the property, received by one of the spouses during their marriage by way of inheritance or by other gratuitous deals (the property of each of the spouses), shall be his own property.

Items of individual use (clothes, footwear, etc.), with the exception of jewellry and other luxury articles, even though acquired in the period of the marriage at the expense of the spouses' common means, shall be recognized as the property of that spouse, who used them.

An exclusive right to the result of intellectual activity created by one of the spouses shall belong to the author of such result.

The property of each of the spouses may be recognized as their joint property if it is established that in the period of the marriage at the expense of the spouses' common property or of the property of each of the spouses, or of the labour of one of the spouses deposits were made, which considerably increased the value of this property (capital repairs, reconstruction, re-equipment, etc.).

The Marriage Contract

The marriage contract shall be recognized as an agreement between the persons entering into a marriage, or an agreement between the spouses, defining the spouses' property rights and duties in marriage and (or) in the case of its dissolution.

The marriage contract may be signed either before the state registration of the marriage or at any time during the marriage.

A marriage contract concluded before the state registration of the marriage shall come into force as from the date of the state registration of the marriage.

The marriage contract shall be concluded in written form and shall be subject to notarial certification.

  The Content of the Marriage Contract

The spouses shall have the right to amend the law-established regime of joint property under the marriage contract, to establish the regime of the joint, shared or separate ownership over the entire property of the spouses, over its individual kinds, or over the property of each of the spouses.

The marriage contract may be concluded both with respect to the existing and future property of the spouses.

The spouses shall have the right to define in the marriage contract their rights and duties involved in the mutual maintenance, in the ways of taking part in each other's incomes and in the way each of them bears family expenses; they shall have the right to delineate the property which shall be transferred to each of the spouses in case of the dissolution of their marriage, and also to include into the marriage contract any other provisions related to the spouses' property relations.

The rights and duties envisaged by the marriage contract may be restricted to definite terms or may be made dependent on the arising or the non-arising of certain conditions.

The marriage contract shall not restrict the spouses' legal capacity or active capacity or their right to turn to a court for the defence of their rights; regulate the personal non-property relations between the spouses, their rights and duties with respect to the children; stipulate provisions restricting the right of a disabled needy spouse to obtain maintenance; or contain other terms, which put one of the spouses into an extremely unfavorable situation or which contradict the fundamental principles of the family legislation.