Inheritance agreements and freedom to dispose of property: limits and protection mechanisms

The relevance of the study is due to the need for theoretical and legal understanding of the inheritance contract as a relatively new for the Russian legal system institute included in the civil legislation in 2019. Despite its enshrinement in Article 1140.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the legal nature and constructive features of the inheritance contract continue to cause scientific disputes and practical difficulties. The lack of established judicial practice, uncertainty in the issues of liability of the parties, admissibility of unilateral refusal, as well as correlation with the will as a classic form of disposition of property in case of death - all this predetermines the need for doctrinal analysis. Especially important is the task of developing legal mechanisms capable of balancing the interests of the parties without violating the principles of civil law, including freedom of contract and inviolability of property. The purpose of the article is to reveal the legal nature of the inheritance contract, to identify its doctrinal and practical contradictions, as well as to formulate proposals to improve legal regulation. The objectives of the study include the analysis of the legal nature of the inheritance contract, assessment of doctrinal positions and judicial practice, identification of internal contradictions of Article 1140.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and the development of proposals to optimize the mechanisms of liability and contractual balance. The methodology is based on formal-legal, comparative-legal and logical-dogmatic approaches, which allowed to identify legal conflicts, evaluate foreign models and justify the need for dispositive adjustment of the institute of inheritance contract. The results of the study confirmed the independent nature of the inheritance contract, disproved its sham, identified gaps in judicial practice, proposed a model of dispositive security of obligations and outlined the directions of harmonization of Article 1140.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation with the principles of civil law. The conclusion confirmed the need for normative and doctrinal rethinking of the inheritance contract as a legal form that requires dispositive adjustment and judicial specification of liability mechanisms for its unilateral breach.