Distinction between transactions requiring and not requiring perception: grounds and significance

The proposed scientific grouping of transactions into those requiring and not requiring perception has not been systematically reflected in Russian civil legislation; moreover, the scientific potential of this classification is often questioned. Purpose: to explain the nature and significance of the distinction between transactions requiring and not requiring perception; to analyze the approaches used to establish the criterion for such a distinction; to develop a mechanism for determining whether a transaction belongs to a particular classification group; and to study the permissibility of extrapolation of division into other (rather than unilateral transactions) legal acts. Methods: the author uses general theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic, as well as specific scientific methods such as legal-dogmatic, legal modeling, comparative legal, interpretation of legal norms. Results: the author proves the irrelevance of ignoring a factor of (not) compulsory perception of will and, as a consequence, the significance of the studied gradation (while the classification of a transaction as requiring or not requiring perception affects the conditions and timing of its legal effects, and the interpretation of the transaction as receptive is necessary to establish and comply with the rules on the procedure and the addressee of the notification of will). The author highlights the main models for reflecting the legal role of perception in the application to transactions that need perception; the author assesses positively the approach to identifying a transaction as (non) receptive based on the direct instructions of the law and the essence of the transaction; the idea of the advisability of adapting the division also to legal acts that are not unilateral transactions is carried out.