Kogan Vladislav A.

In different historical periods, inheritance law was considered to be an institute of various branches of legislation. Some approaches referred to it as social security law or family law; over time, inheritance law started to be examined in the context of civil law relationships.The inheritance institute, one of the oldest in civil law, is very conservative and changes extremely slowly; however, it should correspond to specific economic relations. Inheritance law is inextricably linked to national traditions and peculiarities,which should be recognized as critical to understanding this branch of lawand its development in Russia.Moreover,the study of inheritance law is impossible without understanding the neighboring civil law institutions,such as various legal dispositions of inheritance in the future,as well as the institution of lifetime maintenance,which has a long historyof enforcement in Russia.The article addresses two grounds of succession: a) succession by law, where the property passes to the people named in the law, and b) succession bywill,where the deceased person names his or her heirs in a unique document called a will.

The study of the evolution of inheritance succession in Russia has gained attention due to the rapid development of inheritance law over the past 20 years (the third part of the Russian Civil Code came into effect in 2002),as well as changes in notarial and judicial practice.Implementation of the new norms of the inheritance law institutions by judges and notaries is constantly evolving. New institutions, such as the institutions of joint wills and inheritance contracts between spouses,are becoming more prevalent.The author emphasizes the need to study the reasons and purposes for introducing these institutions to determine the general features and differences between them. Given that both institutions have foreign origins, we should pay close attention to how they were integrated into the Russian legal system. This requires an examination of the challenges associated with applying these institutions in the countries where theywere established and where theyreceived lawenforcement practice.These changes connect the civil law regulation and family law development issues more closely.