Concept and types of objects of civil legal relations

Objects of civil rights include things (including cash and documentary securities), other property, including property rights (including non-cash funds, uncertificated securities, digital rights); results of work and provision of services; protected results of intellectual activity and means of individualization equivalent to them (intellectual property); intangible benefits.

• Article 127. Features of the responsibility of the Russian Federation and the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in relations regulated by civil legislation, with the participation of foreign legal entities, citizens and states
• Article 129. Transferability of objects of civil rights

Concept and types of objects of civil legal relations

1.

Civil law mediates economic turnover in unique legal forms, i.e.
movement in society of material and intangible goods. In the most general form, the objects of civil legal relations can be called benefits
, in connection with the ownership and (or) transfer of which the subjects have rights and obligations.

benefits

in the civil legal sense, they are objects and phenomena that can satisfy the needs of subjects. Almost anything can be good: a thing, a substance, energy, information, an artistic image, people’s assessment of each other.

The method of formalizing ownership of the object of a legal relationship is an absolute right (ownership of a thing, exclusive right to a work). The transfer of the object is accompanied by the emergence of the right of obligation. There are objects in respect of which it is possible to establish only absolute rights (inalienable intangible benefits) or only obligatory ones (services).

2.

The legal list of objects of civil rights is given in Art. 128 Civil Code. The types of objects named there, according to their nature, can be divided into the following groups:

1) property.

It can be physical (tangible, present). The law considers things, cash and documentary securities to be types of bodily property. With equal success, property can be incorporeal (intangible, non-cash). Types of incorporeal property are non-cash money, uncertificated securities and property rights;

2) works and services;

3) intellectual property;

4) intangible benefits.

3.

The classification of objects depending on their ability to be in civil circulation is set out in Art. 129 Civil Code. As a general rule, any object is not limited in circulation. Such an object can belong to any entity and move from one person to another freely.

For some types of objects, laws or regulations may establish various restrictions on turnover. The circle of persons who have the right to possess these objects may be limited (nuclear reactors in the Russian Federation can only belong to the state). A permitting (licensing) procedure for making transactions with objects may be introduced (permission is required to acquire any effective civilian weapons). It is possible to combine these methods and use other options: limiting the range of transactions performed or the range of possible participants in transactions in comparison with the general rules, increasing the requirements for the execution of transactions, establishing a pre-emptive right to purchase an object, etc.

With regard to natural resources, the opposite presumption applies: their circulation is possible to the extent permitted by law.

A very peculiar regime is reported by Art. 129 Civil Code results of intellectual activity and means of individualization. From the point of view of the legislator, these intangible objects are out of circulation, and only the rights to them and tangible media (copies of a phonogram, for example) are alienated.

Commentary to Art. 128 Civil Code of the Russian Federation

1. In the commented article, the objects of civil rights are understood as nothing more than material and spiritual benefits, regarding which subjects of civil law enter into legal relations with each other.

Article 128 contains a closed list of such benefits, which is hardly consistent with objective reality. Civil legal relations arise in connection with some other objects, which only with a large degree of convention can be subsumed under the benefits listed in the commented article. Therefore, it is more correct to consider that Art. 128 indicates only the most common objects of civil rights. This approach is more consistent with such principles of civil law as the principles of the permissible orientation of civil law regulation and freedom of contract.

2. Among the objects of civil rights listed in Art. 128, a special place belongs to things. Things are material objects of the surrounding world external to man. They are objects of material and spiritual culture, i.e. products of human labor, as well as objects created by nature itself and used by people in their life activities - land, minerals, plants, etc.

The most important feature of things, thanks to which they become objects of civil rights, is their ability to satisfy certain needs of people. Objects that do not have useful qualities or whose useful qualities have not yet been discovered, as well as objects that are inaccessible at this stage of development of human civilization (for example, cosmic bodies), are not objects of civil rights. In other words, only material values ​​acquire the regime of things, i.e. material goods, the beneficial properties of which are recognized and mastered by people.

3. It should be emphasized that the legal understanding of things does not coincide with the everyday idea of ​​them. From the point of view of the law, things are recognized not only as traditional household items, means of production, etc., but also complex material objects (railroads, industrial enterprises, etc.), various types of energy subject to human control (thermal, electrical, nuclear and etc.), liquid and gaseous substances (water and gas in tanks, oil in pipelines, etc.). Special types of things also include money, currency values ​​and securities, which are covered in Art. Art. 140 - 149 Civil Code (see commentary to them).

4. Things are a type of property. It must be borne in mind that the concept of “property” is given different meaning in different articles of the Civil Code and other laws. Sometimes property is reduced only to things (see, for example, paragraph 2 of Article 15, paragraph 2 of Article 46, etc. of the Civil Code); in other cases, this concept covers things, money and securities (clause 1 of article 302, clause 1 of article 307, etc. of the Civil Code); in a number of articles, property refers not only to the objects listed above, but also to property rights (Article 18, paragraph 1 of Article 56, etc. of the Civil Code); finally, the concept of “property” may also include civil obligations (clause 2 of article 63, clause 1 of article 1112, etc. of the Civil Code). This means that when applying the relevant rules, it is necessary to understand the meaning of the term “property” each time.

In the commented article, other property not related to things obviously means property rights and obligations, as well as material benefits that do not meet the characteristics of things. For example, civil rights and obligations may arise regarding the use of air corridors and other atypical objects (for more details, see: Lapach V.A. System of objects of civil rights. St. Petersburg, 2002).

5. Works and services are combined into a single group due to the fact that they are objects of rights of obligation. At the same time, work should be understood not as labor activity as such, which is regulated by labor law, but as the result of work. A characteristic feature of the result of work as a special object of civil rights is that it can be guaranteed to be achieved by any person with the necessary knowledge, skills and qualifications. This distinguishes it from the results of creative activity (objects of intellectual property), which are characterized by the features of uniqueness, novelty, uniqueness, etc.

Another qualifying feature of the object of civil rights under consideration is that the result of the work must be expressed in materialized form. In other words, this result must be able to be separated from the actions of the person performing the work, be tangible and capable of transfer to the person for whom the work was performed.

In contrast to work, a service is understood as such actions of subjects that either do not end with any specific result at all, but contain a useful effect in themselves, or have a result that is not embodied in materialized form. An example of services of the first type is activities of an entertainment, educational, consulting and other similar nature. This type of service is characterized by the fact that with their help human needs are satisfied in the process of the service provider’s activities. Services of the second type include medical, intermediary, audit, etc. These services have or may have a result (healing a patient, identifying errors in accounting statements, etc.), which, however, does not take on a material form.

6. One of the objects of civil rights is intellectual property. Since January 1, 2008, this term in Russian legislation denotes the results of intellectual activity and equivalent means of individualization of legal entities, goods, works, services and enterprises that are granted legal protection. In other words, works of science, literature and art, inventions, trade names, trademarks and other results of intellectual activity protected by law are recognized as intellectual property in the Russian Federation.

This understanding of intellectual property diverges from the traditional world practice interpretation of intellectual property as a set of rights to the results of intellectual activity and means of individualization. In addition, it contradicts paragraph VIII of Art. 2 of the Convention establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), dated July 14, 1967, which states that intellectual property includes rights relating to literary, artistic and scientific works, inventions, trademarks and other objects.

7. Intangible benefits as objects of civil rights are understood as benefits and freedoms that have no economic content and are inseparable from the personality of their bearers, recognized and protected by law. These include life and health, personal dignity, personal integrity, honor and good name, business reputation, personal and family secrets and other intangible benefits.

Intangible goods are inseparable from the individual and, accordingly, cannot be alienated from their carriers. Because of this, civil law does not regulate the relations associated with them, but only ensures their protection (clause 2 of article 2 of the Civil Code).

8. The introductory law to part four of the Civil Code excludes from the commented article such an object of civil rights as information. Since no explanations were given for this decision, it can be assumed that its initiators proceeded from the fact that information as such cannot be an independent object of civil rights, since it always has the regime of some other object, i.e. is the result of intellectual activity, a trade secret or an intangible benefit. If this particular circumstance became the motivating reason for excluding information from the list of objects of civil rights - and no other reasonable explanations come to mind - then this decision is erroneous.

Indeed, any and especially an intangible object can be considered as a certain set of information. But this does not mean at all that the information itself is reduced to these objects. For example, some civil law contracts regulate the relations of the parties regarding information that is not the object of exclusive rights, does not have a trade secret regime and does not fall under the established concept of an intangible benefit. These are agreements on carrying out research and development work, conducting marketing research, checking the patent purity of technical objects, etc. Many civil law obligations contain so-called information rights and obligations (for example, the consumer’s right to information, the right of each participant in a simple partnership agreement to get acquainted with all documentation for conducting business, etc.).

Therefore, despite the exclusion of information from the list of objects of civil rights contained in the commented article, it can still act as their independent object.

Information as a special object of civil rights is characterized by the following features. First of all, information is an ideal component of being, i.e. an intangible benefit that cannot be reduced to those physical objects that act as its carriers (recording on paper, digital form, etc.). Further, information is a non-consumable good, which is subject only to moral, but not physical aging. An important feature of information is the possibility of its almost unlimited replication, distribution and transformation of the forms of its recording. Finally, the law does not assign to anyone a monopoly on the possession and use of information, with the exception of that which is also an object of intellectual property.

Objects of civil law relations

The object of a civil legal relationship is understood as a certain benefit of a material and intangible nature, as well as the process of its production. According to Article 128 of the Civil Code, this can be: a thing, money, a security, property right, work or service, the result of intellectual work, information and other intangible benefits.

A material object may have different legal regulatory regimes. The regime is understood as the established norms according to which a transaction is concluded and the emergence (or termination) of ownership.

Civil Law: Lecture Notes

2.3. Legal facts as the basis of civil legal relations

Legal fact

- these are the grounds for the emergence, change or termination of civil legal relations enshrined in the norms of civil law.

Due to the fact that legal facts underlie civil legal relations and entail their establishment, change or termination, they are called the grounds of civil legal relations.

Legal facts can be classified on various grounds.

According to legal consequences

:

• law-forming legal facts;

• law-altering legal facts;

• terminating legal facts.

By volitional criterion

:

• legal facts-events and the consequences generated by them that do not depend on the will of people (the birth or death of a person, the expiration of a period, etc.);

• legal facts-acts, expressed in the form of actions or inactions, which are circumstances, the occurrence of which is determined by the consciousness and will of people.

The largest number of legal facts in civil law form actions that are divided into:

• lawful actions - complying with legal requirements or the terms of an agreement or transaction;

• unlawful actions - contrary to the requirements of the law or the terms of an agreement, transaction, or offense (torts).

Types of legal actions:

• legal actions are actions that entail legal consequences, regardless of whether the subject was aware or unaware of their legal significance (for example, the creation of an invention by the author);

• legal acts - actions directly aimed at achieving legal results.

Legal acts include:

• administrative acts - carried out by an authorized administrative body, which itself does not become a participant in the legal relationship established by it (for example, state registration of a real estate transaction);

• transactions - made by any subjects of civil law, who themselves become participants in the legal relationship established by them (for example, concluding a purchase and sale agreement).

Thus, some legal relations themselves are capable of acting as legal facts.

Civil rights and obligations arise (Article 8 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation):

• from contracts and other transactions;

• from acts of state and local government bodies, which are provided by law as the basis for the emergence of civil rights and obligations;

• from a court decision establishing civil rights and obligations;

• as a result of the acquisition of property on grounds permitted by law;

• as a result of creating results of intellectual activity;

• due to harm to another person;

• due to unjust enrichment;

• due to other actions of citizens and legal entities;

• due to events with which the law or other legal act associates the onset of civil consequences.

Types of intangible benefits

In order of occurrence:

• Benefits that belong to citizens from birth (intangible benefits of the first level);
• Benefits that belong to citizens by virtue of the law (second-level intangible benefits).

According to the degree of connection between personal non-property rights and property rights:

• Personal non-property rights associated with property rights;
• Personal non-property rights not related to property rights.

By target orientation:

• Personal non-property rights aimed at individualizing the individual: the right to a name (name of a legal entity), the right to honor, dignity, business reputation;
• Personal non-property rights aimed at ensuring the physical integrity of the individual: life, freedom, choice of place of stay, place of residence);
• Personal non-property rights aimed at the inviolability of the inner world of the individual and his interests (personal and family secrets, non-interference in private life, honor and dignity).

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Subjective rights as objects

Civil law recognizes subjective rights on an equal basis with other property. Not every right will be the object of a legal relationship, since it must be about property and mutual obligations.

The right itself is intangible and does not fall under the criterion of “possession”. In relation to things, the right has the function of notifying other subjects about the ownership of a certain person over a thing.

While the ownership of the rights themselves may not be determined initially. For this purpose, special conditions for the transfer of rights have been developed. The legislator requires that debtors be notified of the transfer of the right to claim debt to other creditors.

Concept and classification of things

A thing is understood as a material object that has a certain form and value. The thing has a number of properties:

• is material;
• has static properties;
• the end product of a process;
• satisfies the material needs of the subject;
• has a price.

A thing can be movable (money, securities) and immovable (apartment, aircraft or ship). The latter differ in that the copyright holder must officially register the property with a government agency.

In addition, a thing can be either divisible or indivisible. It is impossible to divide a material object consisting of several parts if it significantly loses its value or functionality.

Based on their relationship, things can be divided into main ones (they are somewhat dependent on others, but have independent functionality) and accessories (which have no value without the main object).

The legislator also distinguishes:

• a consumable item that gradually loses its qualities during use, in whole or in part;
• a non-consumable thing that does not lose its basic properties and only receives wear and tear (depreciation) during use (machine, equipment, house).
• complex objects that represent a collection of heterogeneous things that can be used as a single whole (parts in a car);
• objects united by generic affiliation (they cannot be distinguished from among similar ones);
• an individual item (has unique characteristics that distinguish it from others);
• product;
• income (funds received from the sale of an item).

Material objects

A service that is considered a material good can be considered a material object.

A material object should be understood not only as a tangible thing, but also as the result of work or service, embodied in the form of matter (repair, construction) or a useful effect (transportation, storage).

Such objects also differ as objects and as material goods (service, work). In this regard, bank deposits or shares in a partnership are not a thing, but a right to demand certain behavior from obligated persons.

Intangible objects

An intangible object is understood as the result of creative work (literature, scientific achievements, invention, etc.). These also include copyrights, trademarks, etc.

Protection of material wealth, ways to protect them

Protection of intangible benefits is a set of measures aimed at protecting intangible benefits.

Protection of the intangible benefits of the injured person can be carried out in particular in the following ways:

• By recognition by the court of a person’s personal non-property right;
• By restoring the situation that existed before the violation of the right;
• By suppressing or prohibiting actions that violate or create a threat of violation of personal non-property rights;
• Compensation for moral damage.

Protection of honor, dignity and business reputation

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Protection of honor, dignity and business reputation - is that a citizen has the right to demand in court a refutation of information discrediting his honor, dignity or business reputation, if the person who disseminated such information does not prove that it is true.

A refutation must be made in the same way in which the defamatory information was disseminated. Along with refuting such information, a citizen whose honor, dignity or business reputation has been violated, along with refuting such information, has the right to demand compensation for losses and compensation for moral damage. These rules also apply to the protection of the business reputation of a legal entity.

Compensation for moral damage

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Compensation for moral damage implies that if a citizen has suffered moral harm (physical or moral suffering) that violates his personal non-property rights, the court may impose on the violator the obligation of monetary compensation for the said harm.

When determining the amount of compensation, the court takes into account the degree of guilt of the offender and other circumstances worthy of attention.

Protection of a citizen's name

Harm caused to a citizen as a result of violation of his right to a name or pseudonym is subject to compensation in accordance with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

When a citizen’s name is distorted or when a name is used in ways or in a form that affects his honor, detracts from his dignity or business reputation, the citizen has the right to demand a refutation, compensation for the harm caused to him, as well as compensation for moral damage.

Protection of a citizen's image

Protection of a citizen’s image implies that the publication and further use of a citizen’s image is permitted only with his consent. After his death, the image can only be used with the consent of the children and the surviving spouse, and in their absence, with the consent of the parents.

In some cases, a citizen’s consent to use an image is not required, for example, in the case of use of the image in state and other public interests or the use of an image obtained when filming in places open to the public or at public events.

The essence of civil relations

The laws of civil relations coordinate relations in society, where non-property and material elements of a certain significance are involved. The weight of relationships is determined not by the size of goods and their value, but by belonging to a specific type.

Signs of civil legal relations:

1. Equality of the parties, from a legal point of view. One participant does not subordinate the other, does not rule on the basis of the administrative nature of the decision, unless another provision is provided for by law.
2. Property and legal isolation of the parties. Participants act as independent entities, fulfill obligations, make calculations, and are responsible for breaking promises and causing losses.
3. The admissibility of the content of the relationship by mutual agreement of the parties. Other legal connections are based on the relevant legal provisions.
4. Large area of ​​participants and multiple objects. In civil relations of law, legal entities, civilians, the state, constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and municipal structures appear. Objects are understood as objects, services, results of intellectual work, and intangible goods.
5. Reimbursement of property in case of damage. Legal guarantees include the collection of penalties and coverage of losses.
6. The specific nature of protection methods. The subjects of the relationship file a lawsuit in case of violation of legal standards.
7. Legal facts as the basis for the emergence, existence and termination of connections between participants. The category of legal facts includes complex living conditions in which subjects find themselves.

Responsibility is provided for in material and non-property agreements that adequately coordinate relations and contribute to the conscientious implementation of accepted conditions. The authorized person demands performance, and the obligated entity acts in his interests or refrains from activity.

Subjects of relations

The connections between the participants arise in their actual activities, and legislation regulates the behavior of the parties by defining patterns of development of events. The subjects of civil legal relations are the parties who take part in certain agreements and enter into non-property and property ties.

Citizens are included in the first group of participants. Individuals have legal capacity, which is a characteristic of the competence to receive rights and obligations. Citizens have legal capacity and are responsible for violation of contracts. A person is connected with society through multiple legal relations, which are systematized by law depending on their dynamics and type.

Citizenship is recognized as fundamental for some segments of the population; an example is the registration of refugee status, which limits residents’ payments in foreign currency. In other conditions, for state legal relations, citizenship is indifferent, and Russians, foreigners and refugees are in the same position.

The following elements are recognized as inalienable property benefits:

• citizen's name - used in copyrights and others;
• age - represents a formal criterion of legal capacity, disability, status of a minor;
• gender - regulates the residence of persons of different sexes in the same premises and marriage;
• health status - coordinates legal capacity;
• marital status - affects the development of pension rights, housing relations and inheritance.

The second group is formed by participants in the legal form of ownership. Enterprises must be holistic, have an organized internal scheme. The structure of the formations is fixed in the charter or prescribed in the constituent agreement; the institution is distinguished by its property independence and bears independent responsibility.

The third group includes the federation, municipal and state structures. Their creation and liquidation are coordinated in a certain order, which does not always coincide with the general rules.

Objects of the contract

This includes non-property and material benefits, due to which complex and simple legal ties are built and terminated. They are called elements of legal relations if they find a certain objective expression.

Concept and types of objects of civil legal relations:

1. Property benefits include subjective objects, the results of work and services presented in materialized form, or they highlight a useful quality for preserving or improving property.
2. Intangible objects are based on the results of creative property and are represented only by absolute rights. This includes objects of art, characteristic trademarks, and names. The category includes life, name, honor, reputation and more.

Interest in non-property and material benefits increases or decreases with exposure to regulation by law and the degree of their participation in civil relations. Property and objects become objects of real agreements, but the activities of the parties and their rights are a feature of binding legal relations. As a result of transactions, a mixture of non-property and property objects occurs with various methods of organizational coordination.

The concept of property is relative in the matter of granting civil relations law. For some types, a general regime is applied , others require additional conditions to be selected when participating in circulation, for example:

• National Wildlife Refuges are not included in sales and purchase agreements;
• storage of firearms and bladed weapons requires a permit;
• transactions with foreign banknotes are carried out only subject to compliance with banking regulations;
• the transfer of ownership is registered in state registers.

Moral personal rights have the feature of non-alienation. They are aimed at individualizing the subject of the relationship, indicate the degree of inviolability, protect medical and notarial confidentiality, and protect personal life from encroachment.

Legal content

Requirements for the fulfillment of duties arise in the event of their violation by other entities. The possibility of independent exercise of will by authorized persons occupies the main part in the volume of rights being realized. Subjective obligation is established by law and is a conditional measure of the behavior of the second party.

The form of behavior or refusal to act is regulated by legal legislation and is represented as a negative or positive obligation. Prohibitions lead to the emergence of obligations in the civil legal field and establish the boundaries of subjective rights. A particular manifestation is the termination of ownership of ownerless property or, conversely, the imposition of an encumbrance on the maintenance of dilapidated real estate, which lasts for a certain period.

Bans are introduced on the use of land or other property in violation of the rights of other entities; causing damage to the surrounding area falls under this category. The intensification of the fulfillment of duties is determined by the legal need to protect the interests of the owner. Damage to a legal entity or citizen from the state or local government is compensated from the funds of a certain treasury.

The structure of legal ties consists of the relationship between the obligations and rights of the participants. If one party bears an obligation by agreement, and the other has a subjective right, then the system belongs to the simple variety. In another case, participants may simultaneously have rights and responsibilities (the structure is recognized as complex). As the number of subjects increases, the pattern of relationships becomes more complex.

The development of civil relations in the field of law and their legal regulation leads to the emergence of complex connections between subjects. Legal relationships are classified based on the complexity of the structure and the differences between the schemes themselves. For example, rental transactions are not regulated by standards for storing items , and actions on behalf are not regulated by provisions on trust property management.

Concept and classification of objects of civil legal relations

The objects of civil rights are material and spiritual benefits, regarding which subjects of civil law enter into legal relations with each other. The range of these goods (objects) is extremely wide and diverse. In accordance with Art. 128 of the Civil Code, objects of civil rights include things, including money and securities, other property, works and services, information, results of intellectual activity, including exclusive rights to them (intellectual property), intangible benefits.

Article 129 of the Civil Code divides objects of civil rights into three groups, taking the negotiability of the relevant objects as the basis for the division. Negotiability means the possibility of alienation of an object under a contract of sale, exchange or gift, or its transfer from one person to another in the order of universal succession (in the form of inheritance or reorganization of a legal entity).

The first group includes freely circulating objects of law, the second - objects limited in circulation, the third - objects completely withdrawn from circulation.

Free circulation of objects of civil rights is a general rule, and restriction of circulation, and especially complete withdrawal from circulation, is an exception to this rule.

Like all other exceptional rules, the rules providing for cases of restrictions and exemptions in question are not subject to general interpretation.

The limitation of turnover is expressed in the fact that the corresponding types of objects can either belong only to state organizations or only to Russian citizens and legal entities, or be in circulation only with special permits (for example, weapons, the right to use natural resources of territorial waters, the continental shelf and the economic zone of the Russian Federation ).

Of all the objects of civil rights that may be limited in their turnover, the Civil Code particularly highlighted land and other natural resources. These objects can be alienated or otherwise transferred from one person to another only to the extent that the circulation of such objects is permitted by the laws on land and other natural resources (clause 3 of Article 129). Accordingly, the owner of a land plot is given the right to sell it, donate it, pledge it or lease it and dispose of it in any other way only on the condition that “the relevant lands are not excluded from circulation on the basis of the law or are not limited in circulation” (clause 1 of Art. 260). Thus, among other things, the special nature of the norms included in the acts on natural resources in relation to the Civil Code is once again emphasized.

The Code classifies objects of civil law using their various properties as criteria. The purpose of this type of classification is to introduce, if necessary, special regimes that reflect the characteristics of certain objects.

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