Bankruptcy of an individual entrepreneur: formation of the bankruptcy estate

The systemic interpretation of legal norms concerning the bankruptcy allows the authors to conclude that the joint property of spouses cannot be included into the bankruptcy estate, formation of which should conform to the norms of family legislation. The latter one acknowledges the right of spouses to separate the joint property at any time on the ground of agreements on property division (part 2 of the article 38 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation) or marriage contracts. It is deduced that the family laws and the civil laws, securing the rights of debt holders at the stage of formation of the bankruptcy estate of a debtor spouse, need to be coordinated with a purpose to balance the interests of both the individual entrepreneur’s family members and the creditors.