Журнал ЗАКОН

Commentary to the ECHR Judgment in Belova v. Russia, no. 33955/08, 15 September 2020 The article offers a critical analysis of the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights on a case related to recovery of immovable property by the State on the eve of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. The author points out a number of controversial issues which may cast doubt on the soundness of the Court’s conclusion that there has been no violation of the Convention in the case at hand.

---

Keywords: ECHR, vindication, good faith, Olympic venues, Olympstroy

Legal entity theories pose the key question ‘what is the legal entity?’ Depending on an answer to it, scholars develop a system of ideas and views on how the legal entity’s activities should be regulated within the framework of such theories: whether its property should be separated from that of its shareholders, to what extent it should independently be liable in tort, whether it should have certain rights and guarantees, what type of activities and transactions is it allowed to perform on the market. The answer to this first and fundamental question is rather philosophical in nature and is based on metaphysical reasoning. It is argued, therefore, that there is a risk that policy decision regarding regulation of legal entities are based on highly subjective and even speculative arguments. It is preferable to be guided by more objective criteria and approaches when developing corporate law rules (and decisions of courts on corporate disputes). As an alternative, the author proposes the idea of analysis of the economic and social goals and functions of the legal entity in process of developing political and legal decisions (the so-called functional approach).

---

Keywords: legal entity, theories of the nature of legal entities, legal capacity, legal policy, fiction

For the first time, a Russian translation and a detailed article-by-article commentary on Title I, ‘On Obligations in General’ (articles 1173–1320) of Book Four of the Italian Civil Code in force (as at 31 December 2020), adopted in 1942, is published. This title is essentially the General Part of Italian law of obligations. This issue publishes the three last chapters — fifth, sixth and seventh — of the Title: ‘On the Cession of Claims’, ‘On the Delegation, on the Expromission and on the Assumption of Debt’, and ‘On Some Types of Obligations’. The beginning (chapters I and II) and the continuation (chapters III and IV) are published in The Herald of Economic Justice of the Russian Federation No. 1 and 2 for 2021.

---

Keywords: Italian Civil Code, Codice civile italiano, law of obligations, obbligazioni, cession of claims, cessione dei crediti, delegation, delegazione, expromission, espromissione, assumption of debt, accollo, pecuniar obligations, obbligazioni pecuniarie

The article deals with the problems of regulation of the shared ownership of the common property in a nonresidential building. The author critically evaluates the possibility of applying by analogy the rules on common property in multi-flat dwelling buildings to the relationship of the owners of premises in non-residential buildings. Russian law has no systematic approach to the issues of whether certain parts of non-residential buildings should be classified as common property, how the size of a share in this type of property should be determined, how this common property should be maintained. The article argues that Russian legislation should provide for a plan of division of the building which would fix the list and/or characteristics and criteria of the common property. It is suggested that a share in common property cannot be determined only according the criterion of the floor area of premises, as usage of premises in nonresidential building depends on much more factors. Thus, the intensity of common property usage could be utilised to determine the burden of its maintenance. In addition, the article draws attention to the problem of determination (recognition) of share in right of ownership of land plot by owners of premises in non-residential building.

---

Keywords: real property, building, non-residential building, shared ownership, common property