New Developments Of The Choice-of-law Rules Concerning Foreign-Related Obligation Relations In Russia

At present,domestic scholars have not conduct much research on Russian law as a whole,and even less on application of foreign-related laws.In particular,after the amendments to the Private International Law of the Russian Federation Civil Code in 2013,there is lack of specific research and public findings on this new law for the time being.This paper is based on the revised version of the Private Civil Law of the Russian Federation,Part III Volume VI,International Private Law in 2013.This is Russia's latest regulation in the application of foreign-related laws.This paper vertically compares developments of the law's own history,and horizontally compares it with China's legislation.By associating with relevant judicial practices,this paper also studies some new developments on the application of laws concerning foreign-related obligation relations in Russia,and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages,expecting that it will give some reference to legislation and amendments of foreign-related legal relations in China.In the first part of this paper,the author elaborates the historical evolution of the Russian Federation Civil Code where the legal provisions of foreign-related obligation relations in Russia are located,and particular regulations of the Chapter Private International Law which has been amended for several times.Established in the Soviet Union,the legislation of the Civil Code lasted for several decades,and until 2006 Russia finally completed the third version of Civil Code,which shows a fairly high level of modernity.The Chapter Private International Law,which has been published since 2001,has been amended three times so far,including twice for only minor adjustments.The 2013 Amendment is particularly important,with the most extensive coverage and the deepest degree.In terms of the codification of civil legislation and the legislation of private international law,Russia is even earlier than China.The second part of this paper focuses on the new amendment of the contractual obligations on application of laws of foreign-related obligation relations in Russia.In the choice of the applicable law of normal contracts,the party autonomy rule was expanded;when the parties have not chosen the applicable law,the legislation has adopted the approaches of the Rome I and the Rome II,implemented the performance which is characteristic of the contract and used the doctrine of the most significant relationship as an additional approach.In addition to the general rules,the 2013 Amendment provided special rules for the different types of contracts;it broadened the protection of the consumer legal rights,who is the weak,in consumer contracts;franchising contracts are unique in Russia,there were special provisions for this type;it changed conservative attitudes to the form of transactions,which the requirements of form will not have a mandatory aim at making transactions been valid as far as possible;it expanded the applicable laws on the transfer of debts between the original creditor and the new creditor;it added applicable law on rights of creditor's,when it transfer legally to others,and on terminated debts because of setoff.On the whole,the amendments of this Chapter keep up with the international general approaches,and the legislation in Russia has become more open and comprehensive.The third part of this paper discusses the new amendments on the application of laws to non-contractual obligations.The 2013 Amendment changed the exception rules beyond the lex rei sitae,extended the party autonomy rule with restriction,and supplemented the applicable laws of two particular non-contractual obligations;it did not mention the provision about negotiorum gestio;it gave the possibility to apply the lex fori on the unjust enrichment,and expanded the party autonomy rule.Both China's legislation on international private law and the Russian counterpart share similarity in respect of expanding the party autonomy rule and protecting the legal rights of the weak underprivileged,and there are also differences.There are provisions about negotiorum gestio and torts of personalitiy rights in Internet in Chinese law,and not in Russian law.In addition,many provisions of Russian law are not covered in Chinese law,thus China can use them as references.