The legal regime of an inheritance contract in the context of the protection of the compulsory share

The study reveals the imbalance of the inheritance contract as an instrument of estate planning and family law imperatives. The authors develop a «doctrine of retroactive guarantees», ensuring the priority of article 1149 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation over contractual terms regardless of the time of their conclusion. Procedural innovations are proposed: compulsory reclamation of evidence of heirs’ incapacity for work and integration of the mechanism of proportional reduction of heir’s obligations. The solutions are aimed at synthesizing autonomy of will and social justice.