Exercising of family rights: issues of law enforcement

Isolated existence of Civil and Family Codes presumes differentiation of the spheres of their respective applications. Courts experience difficulties in application of specialized laws to relations of married couples vested with civil and family legal rights and, at the same time, their legal status is determined differently in Civil and Family Codes. Existence of personal non-property and property relations between family members serves as a criterion for application of Family Code; thus, the husband is attributed to family members in accordance with legislation. As noted by Constitutional Court, diverse conditions for individual categories of subjects of the law should be fairly stipulated by features of their legal status. A specific character of the status of the husband, inter alia, becomes apparent in settlement of dispositive transactions specified in the paragraph 5, article 35 of Family Code, concluded by spouses with respect to their matrimonial property and invalidation of such transactions. Property of the married couple provides family needs, and for this reason matrimonial property is a type of legal and familial joint property. That is the reason, why the rules of paragraph 3, article 35 of Family Code show preference for the interests of the spouse having the property in possession, who not concluded the bargain as compared with the interests of the other party of such bargain, and, if common property of the married couple was alienated to bona fide purchaser for value, as distinguished from rules on possession, use and disposition of joint property for subjects of civil legal relations. Herewith, civil legislation concedes (item 4, article 253 of Civil Code) eventuality of other ascertainments not only in Civil Code, but also in other laws for individual types of common property, to which common matrimonial property of the married couples should be assigned. Thus, rules of the paragraph 3, article 35 of Family Code reckon on violation of rights of one of spouses, as of a legal subject of family relations as regulated by norms of family legislation. Accordingly, we have no grounds for appendant application of civil legislation.