The Prenuptial Agreement of Business Spouses: Guarantees of Respect for Mutual Interests and Protection of the Rights of the Parties

Introduction: in the light of modern socio-economic realities, an urgent problem is the effective protection of the property interests and rights of spouses who own a family business. The conclusion of a prenuptial agreement provides spouses who have a family business and are parties to the prenuptial agreement with the opportunity to reduce financial risks and provide themselves with additional legal protection in the event of termination of the marital relationship. The inclusion of legally verified contractual structures in a prenuptial agreement is very effective in preventing future conflicts between spouses who own a joint business. Purpose: to reveal the legal content of the prenuptial agreement concluded between spouses who own a joint business in the system of contractual structures and to develop recommendations for improving the contractual regulation. Objectives: to identify conflicts related to the legal guarantees of respect for mutual interests of spouses who have a family business and are parties to a prenuptial agreement; to identify contractual structures used to minimize conflicts between the subjects of a prenuptial agreement; and to develop a conceptual model for concluding a prenuptial agreement between spouses who own a joint business remotely via the Internet. Methods: the methodological framework for the research is based on the general scientific methods: systematic analysis, abstraction, and the dialectical method, as well as a set of specific scientific methods: structural and functional, formal legal, comparative law, forecasting, and modeling. Results: it is proposed to amend Art. 11 of Federal Law No. 193-FZ dated July 27, 2010, “On an Alternative Dispute Settlement Procedure with the Participation of an Intermediary (Mediation Procedure),” supplementing its paragraph 8; in the context of the effective implementation of the concept of “Electronic State,” the Federal Notary Chamber it is proposed to develop, test, and implement a virtual assistant based on artificial intelligence technologies, which will function not only on the Federal Notary Chamber website but also on the online resources of the notary chambers of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Conclusions: it is recommended to normalize the mediation procedure for spouses who have a family business and are parties to a prenuptial agreement through information and communication technologies; as part of the implementation of the concept of “Electronic State,” the Federal Notary Chamber should develop, test, and implement a virtual assistant (“chatbot”) based on artificial intelligence, which will be available not only on the Federal Notary Chamber website but also on the websites of notary chambers of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and at the request of users, including spouses who have a joint family business, it will perform an advisory function when drafting a prenuptial agreement.