Sus Y. Rights of inheritance of spouses

The dissertation is a comprehensive scientific study of the rights of inheritance of spouses, during which the genesis of the formation of the rights of inheritance of spouses has been studied, the essence and content of the rights of inheritance of spouses and a number of related concepts have been clarified. The author's definitions of the terms "rights of inheritance" and "rights of inheritance of spouses" have been formulated. A number of legislative proposals have been developed regarding the exercise of rights of inheritance by spouses both during the lifetime of both of them, and after the death of one of them. According to the results of the dissertation research, it was established that the process of formation and development of the inheritance legal relations of spouses on the territory of Ukraine can be divided into the following stages: 1) the formation of inheritance law in the days of Kyivan Rus (IX-XIII centuries); 2) separation of the inheritance rights of the wife as an independent subject of inheritance legal relations in the Lithuanian-Polish era and during the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, including on the territory of the Hetman region (XIV-XVII centuries); 3) a period of partial remission in the process of establishing the wife's inheritance rights as an independent subject (eighteenth-nineteenth centuries); 4) establishment of the institution of inheritance rights for spouses (XX century); 5) development of the institution of inheritance rights of spouses (end of the 20 th - beginning of the 21st century to the present). A conclusion was made that inheritance law, the subject of which is the regulation of inheritance legal relations, extends its normative influence to the relations arising in connection with the determination of the post-mortem fate of property (property rights and obligations), and not only the order and conditions of such a transition after the death of the owner such property. A number of inheritance rights belonging to the subject of inheritance law arise before the death of a person (for example, the right to make a will). General and special characteristics of the rights of inheritance of spouses are evidenced. General characteristics of the rights of inheritance of spouses: they are inalienable; the main legal fact that determines the occurrence, change or termination of these rights is the death of the testator; may arise during the life of the testator, but the major part of them are carried out after the latter's death; they are closely related to the right of ownership; implementing them, the subjects determine the post-mortgage fate of property (property rights and obligations) in inseparable unity; the exercise of such rights is closely related to legal succession. It was established that the rights of inheritance of spouses are characterized by the following special features: the inheritance rights of spouses arise only in persons who are in a registered marriage; separate inheritance rights of spouses can be exercised only jointly by both spouses; the specifics of the exercise of individual inheritance rights of spouses is determined by the presence/absence of a regime of joint property ownership, which post-mortgage fate is determined; the death of one of the spouses always has a legal effect on the exercise of inheritance rights by the other, regardless of the existence of a will; the existence of a marriage at the time of the death of the first spouse; the only death of both spouses is the basis for the appearance of rights of the heirs under the will of the spouses; separate inheritance rights ensure the unity and safety of the joint property of the spouses, as well as the possibility of its use by the spouse who survived the other (making a joint will for the spouses). Based on the criteria of the legal significance of the fact of the testator's death for the emergence, change and termination of the respective rights, a classification of the rights of inheritance of the spouses was developed into the following groups: 1) the rights of inheritance of the spouses that arise during the life of the testator and for which death is a right-terminating and/or law-changing fact; 2) rights of inheritance of spouses, for which the death of the testator is the right-generating factor or a prerequisite for their occurrence.