The dynamics of the material legal relationship at the terminal stage

Kalis Mariya Nikolaevna ORCID: 0009-0004-4446-7195 Senior Lecturer; Department of Civil and Corporate Law; St. Petersburg State University of Economics 6-8 7th Krasnoarmeyskaya str., Saint Petersburg, 190005, Russia law.kalismaria@gmail.com

Introduction

The concept of "dynamics of a legal relationship" is very common in the legal literature. Often, when talking about "dynamics", "influence on dynamics" and "place in dynamics", the authors do not specify exactly what they mean by the dynamics of a legal relationship – as if this concept did not require clarification.

Defining the content of the concept of "dynamics of legal relations", V. F. Popondopulo proposed to subdivide the dynamics of legal relations into dynamics in the broad sense associated with changes in the legal regulation of a particular sphere of public relations, and in the narrow sense — as their emergence, change, termination (the dynamics of legal relations as forms of law, occurring under the influence of legal norms). In addition, depending on whether the dynamics of a legal relationship in the narrow sense corresponds to the requirements of the law that establishes it, he proposed to distinguish the normal and abnormal stages of dynamics, which he considered as "the development of the content of the legal relationship"^[1].

Although the opinion that the dynamics of any type of civil legal relationship include such stages of its development as emergence, change and termination^[2] is the most widespread in the legal literature, this point of view is not the only one^[3,4].

Thus, S. S. Alekseev pointed out that the movement of a civil legal relationship cannot be reduced to the listed three "main stages of its development" ("external metamorphoses"), a civil legal relationship is characterized by "internal development" - an example of which is the transition as a result of an offense to a state of claim and the "stage of compulsory implementation" of a civil legal relationship^{[5, p. 294]}. The idea that the dynamics of a legal relationship is not limited to emergence and termination is also expressed by some modern authors – for example, it is proposed to single out the stage of "transformation of a legal relationship"^[6]. However, this area of research is not widely popular at the moment.

The concept of the dynamics of a legal relationship is inextricably linked to the theory of legal facts — the circumstances with which the rule of law relates the occurrence of legally significant consequences. For example, R. O. Khalfina, in the chapter on the dynamics of legal relations, considered precisely the concept and classification of legal facts; the work noted that "the need for a certain legal fact for the emergence and development of a legal relationship ... emphasizes the inextricable link between real behavior and legal form, the impossibility in real life to separate one from the other"^{[7, p. 286]}.

At the same time, the occurrence, modification and termination of a legal relationship listed earlier are precisely legally significant consequences, and not stages of the dynamics of a legal relationship. As a result, the study of the dynamics of a legal relationship actually boils down to the study of the legal facts entailing the occurrence of these consequences.

However, the development of a legal relationship is also of interest in the accumulation of the legal composition necessary for their occurrence. In this article, we will consider the issues of the dynamics of a legal relationship during the period of its termination on the initiative of one of the parties.

Neither the legislation nor the literature use any terms to refer to this period. In the framework of this work, we propose to use the expression "terminal stage of a legal relationship" to describe it. It is not commonly used, but it echoes the term "termination stage" used in foreign legal literature to describe the period of termination of a contract^[8], and also reflects the irreversibility of the reasons characteristic of this stage, which served as the basis for the movement towards termination of legal relations.

The subject of this study will be, therefore, the definition and justification of the features of the dynamics of a substantive legal relationship at the terminal stage of development, continuing from the moment the party expresses its intention to terminate the legal relationship to their termination.

The research is based on the application of the dialectical method, which made it possible to consider a material legal relationship in development — from the expression of the will to terminate to its completion. The formal legal method is used to analyze the regulations governing the termination of legal relations and identify their internal logic. A systematic approach is applied to consider a legal relationship as an integral structure, the elements of which change during its dynamics, especially at the terminal stage. The method of legal modeling allowed us to propose a classification of terminal stage situations according to the method, grounds and nature of termination of the legal relationship. The analysis of judicial practice was carried out using the method of generalization of empirical material: the legal positions of courts in cases of contract termination, termination of obligations and marital relations were studied. The comprehensive research methodology is aimed at identifying the features of the development of a legal relationship at the final stage of its existence and formulating proposals for improving law enforcement practice.

Controversial issues of the dynamics of legal relations at the terminal stage.

The first debatable question is related to the moment at which the legal relationship will be considered terminated: at the moment of the occurrence of the final legal fact or at another moment, including earlier in time?

In itself, the retrospective onset of legal consequences of ongoing legal procedures is known to domestic legislation and practice. For example, an accepted inheritance is considered to belong to the heir from the date of the opening of the inheritance (Clause 4, Article 1152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation); the term of validity of the exclusive right to an invention is calculated from the date of filing the application (clause 1, Article 1363 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation); immovable property may be included in the inheritance, in respect of which the citizen filed an application for privatization, but died prior to the state registration of ownership rights (paragraph 8 of Resolution No. 8 of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated August 24, 1993).

A different approach is applied to the termination of legal relations. For example, according to Article 25 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, a marriage that is dissolved in the civil registry offices is terminated from the date of state registration of the marriage in the civil registry book, and upon dissolution of the marriage in court - from the date of entry into force of the court decision. As a general rule, in case of unilateral cancellation of the contract, it is considered terminated from the date of receipt by the counterparty of the notification of refusal (paragraph 1 of Article 450.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), and in case of termination by agreement of the parties – from the moment of conclusion of the agreement (paragraph 1 of paragraph 3 of Article 453 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation); otherwise in both listed cases may be determined by agreement parties.

In case of judicial termination, the contract is considered terminated, as a general rule, from the date of entry into force of the court decision. However, Federal Law No. 347–FZ of 07/24/2023, paragraph 2, paragraph 3, Article. 453 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation was amended, granting the court the right to provide for another date, from which the obligations are considered modified or terminated accordingly.. Such date is determined by the court based on the substance of the contract and (or) the nature of the legal consequences of its amendment, but may not be earlier than the date of occurrence of the circumstances that served as the basis for the amendment or termination of the contract. The need to establish the possibility of retrospective termination of contractual legal relations upon termination of the contract in court was largely due to the needs of practice that emerged during the spread of coronavirus infection, which gave rise to a large number of disputes about the termination of contracts due to a significant change in circumstances^[9]. The tenants, referring to the loss of the need to rent premises due to the inability to carry out business activities during the pandemic, actually terminated the lease long before the court decision was issued - however, the legislation in force at that time did not allow the court to determine the time of termination of the contract based on the actual legal relations of the parties.

The practice of courts applying the above provisions of paragraph 2, paragraph 3, Article. 453 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation in a new version indicates that the most common use of the clause on the retrospective nature of contract termination is in lease relations (see, for example, the Decision of the Arbitration Court of the North Caucasus District of 10.03.2025 N F08-11795/2024 in the case N A53-41045/2023; Decision of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District dated 02/24/2025 N F05-28716/2024 in case N A40-294785/2023; Decision of the Arbitration Court of the Far Eastern District dated 12/24/2024 N F03-4624/2024 in case N A73-7862/2023), in other legal relations (for example, arising from a supply contract), courts often do not see grounds for termination from the date preceding the entry into force of the decision, even under similar factual circumstances (for example, if the supplier notifies the buyer that it is impossible to supply certain goods due to foreign economic and sanctions restrictions: Decision of the Arbitration Court of the East Siberian District dated 03/25/2025 N F02-638/2025 in case N A19-18682/2023).

Consequently, during the consideration of a transformative claim, the parties not only do not know whether the legal relationship will be terminated or changed, but they also cannot know when this will happen, either from the point of view of a specific calendar date in the future, or from the point of view of the court's application of rules that allow it to independently determine the moment when, for example, the contract will be considered terminated..

This is largely related to the second debatable issue – the consequences of the occurrence of legally significant circumstances during the terminal stage of a legal relationship that are not part of the necessary for termination of the legal relationship, as well as the possibility of "healing" the legal relationship – preventing its termination and returning to normal development.

Thus, the researchers asked about the legal consequences of the death of one of the spouses in the period from the moment of expressing the will to end the marriage to the moment of its dissolution, including during the consideration of the claim for divorce. Based on the above-mentioned provisions of Article 25 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, and in accordance with the explanations contained in the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 05/29/2012 No. 9 "On Judicial practice in inheritance cases", in the event of a judicial dissolution of the marriage, the testator's former spouse is deprived of the right to inherit in this capacity, if the relevant court decision has entered into force. into legal force until the day of the opening of the inheritance (that is, until the death of the spouse). The divorce proceedings must be terminated due to the fact that the party has died and the legal relationship does not allow for succession, on the basis of art. 220 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. At the same time, it is noted in the literature that under German law, if there is an application for divorce filed with the court, the surviving spouse is deprived of the right to inherit; similar provisions exist in the legislation of Serbia, Croatia and Lithuania^[10].

Attempts to "heal" a legal relationship after its transition to the terminal stage are usually associated with the elimination by the counterparty of violations that served as the basis for the other party's will to terminate the legal relationship. In judicial practice, two opposing positions have been expressed regarding the consequences of such actions.

According to paragraph 8 of the Review of Dispute Resolution Practices related to the Conclusion, Amendment and Termination of Contracts (Information Letter of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated 05.05.1997 N 14), the requirement to terminate the lease agreement is not subject to satisfaction if violations that served as the basis for applying to the arbitration court are eliminated within a reasonable time.

A similar position with regard to the grounds for compulsory liquidation was expressed in paragraph 3 of the Information Letter of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated August 13, 2004 No. 84 "On Certain Issues of Application by Arbitration courts of Article 61 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation": it cannot be liquidated on the grounds provided for in paragraph 3 of Article 26 of the Federal Law "On State Registration of Legal Entities individuals and individual entrepreneurs", a legal entity that, although after filing a claim for its liquidation, but before making a decision by the court of first instance, informed the registering authority of the information provided for in subparagraphs "a" - "d", "l" of paragraph 1 of Article 5 of the said Federal Law.

A different approach was expressed in paragraph 23 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated 17.11.2011 No. 73 "On certain issues of practice in applying the Rules of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation on the Lease Agreement", which states that even after the lessee has eliminated the violations committed by him, the lessor has the right to file a claim for termination of the contract within a reasonable time. In fact, this position should exclude the application of paragraph 8 of the Information Letter of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated 05.05.1997 N 14 in cases where the plaintiff appealed to the court within a reasonable time.

However, even after the new position appears, the courts in some cases refuse to satisfy claims for termination of the contract (see, for example, the Decision of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District of 19.02.2015 N F05-373/2015 in case N A41-66870/13; the Decision of the Arbitration Court of the Volga-Vyatka District of 02.06.2020 N F01-9171/2020 in case N A31-235/2019). Rejecting the reference to the current interpretation, the courts point out that the 2011 clarifications "concern the lessor's right to file a claim for termination of the contract within a reasonable time after payment of the debt and do not indicate whether the court has an obligation to terminate the contract in such a case."

At the same time, there are a significant number of judicial acts in which the courts, despite the defendant's elimination of violations that led to the filing of a claim for termination of the contract, satisfy such claims (see, for example, the Decision of the Arbitration Court of the East Siberian District of 04/28/2022 N F02-1403/2022 in the case N A19-7796/2021; the Decision of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District of 05.11.2014 N F05-12208/14 in case N A41-4224/14; Ruling of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 26.08.2016 in case N 309-ES16-10089).

Thus, the practice feels the need to determine the specific consequences of voluntary fulfillment of requirements, the failure of which led to recourse to the court with transformative claims aimed at changing or terminating legal relations. The proposed options for procedural behavior, in the absence of justification for the reasons for their choice, are used by the courts in a non-uniform manner.

In case of an out–of–court termination of the contract - for example, in connection with a unilateral withdrawal by a party from the contract due to violations committed by the other party - the described situation may also arise: for example, after the seller sends a notice of withdrawal from the contract due to late payment by the buyer, but before it is received by the buyer, the latter fulfills the obligation to pay. In a similar situation, the court agreed with the position of the buyer, who insisted on the proper fulfillment of his obligations, and did not support the seller, who claimed that the contract was terminated due to a unilateral refusal (Decision of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District of 02/18/2025 in case no. A41-12899/2021).

The relationship between the features of the terminal stage of a legal relationship and its dynamics

We consider it necessary to classify legal relations at the terminal stage in order to determine the specifics of their dynamics.

According to the termination method, the terminal stage can occur in both non-jurisdictional and jurisdictional (or administrative) forms. At the same time, the choice of the jurisdictional form in the vast majority of cases is associated with the existence of a dispute about the law, as it is used when it is impossible to terminate legal relations on the basis of a unilateral expression of will or by agreement of the parties; however, for example, in the case of a judicial dissolution of a marriage, there may be no dispute about the law (dissolution by consent of both spouses, but in the presence of minors children). This classification determines which legal fact will be the final one for the accumulation of legal composition; in addition, in the event of termination of a legal relationship in a jurisdictional form, the procedure and consequences of termination of legal relations are determined not by the parties themselves, but by the jurisdictional authority.

Depending on the reasons for termination, the terminal stage may or may not be related to the presence of violations on the part of the counterparty. In this case, the violation gives rise to the right to use such a method of protection, which involves the termination of the legal relationship. If the reason for termination is not a violation, then the party that did not express the will to terminate the relationship, by its unilateral actions, "heal" the legal relationship, since the fact of violation is not part of the legal structure necessary for termination of the legal relationship.

By the nature of the legal effect, the terminal stage may involve termination of the legal relationship from the moment the final legal fact occurs, i.e. "prospectively" (ex nunc) and termination with a retrospective effect (ex tunc). Since for a non-jurisdictional method of termination of legal relations, the choice between these options may be determined by the will of the parties, it is necessary to justify the appropriate choice (or lack thereof) for cases of jurisdictional termination of legal relations.

If the jurisdictional form of termination of a legal relationship is legally binding (for example, in the case of divorce), the purpose of its establishment is to provide a chance for the healing of the legal relationship through joint actions of the parties (reconciliation and refusal of divorce). Unlike other previously mentioned ongoing procedures, which end with the adoption of a decision by a jurisdictional, administrative or other similar body or person, where the ongoing procedure is intended for the relevant body to carry out verification measures (verification of an application for an invention, grounds for accepting inheritance, grounds for privatization), upon divorce by a court or registry office authorities in the period from No similar actions are performed before filing an application for divorce. Therefore, since the termination of the divorce procedure can only be carried out if the parties have not jointly changed their decision, the termination of the legal relationship in this case cannot be retrospective, since otherwise the meaning of such a "reconciliation period" established by the legislator would be lost

If the appeal to the jurisdictional form is related to the existence of a dispute over law, and in its absence the legal relationship could be terminated by agreement of the parties, then the termination of the legal relationship by the court is justified from the moment when all other elements of the legal structure necessary for the termination of the legal relationship have occurred, in fact, regulatory legal relations have not been carried out (for example, the leased premises were vacated, the goods were not delivered), and the party that subsequently applied for termination in a jurisdictional manner communicated to the counterparty the will to terminate the legal relationship.

In the case of recourse to the jurisdictional procedure for termination of the relationship due to the disagreement of the other party to termination by agreement of the parties, from the moment the other party is informed of the will to terminate the legal relationship (and in some cases even earlier - for example, upon termination of the lease agreement – after the expiration of the period specified in art. A protective legal relationship arises with a different content than a regulatory legal relationship: it is aimed at terminating legal relations and can be enforced.

Therefore, in such cases, the elimination by the obligated person of the violation that led to the emergence of the other party's right to demand termination of the legal relationship cannot in itself "heal" the legal relationship, since "healing" would imply termination of the protective legal relationship and preservation of the regulatory one, however, actions to fulfill the duties included in the content of the regulatory legal relationship are not aimed at satisfying the claim protective.

Conclusion and conclusions.

Within the framework of the conducted research, it is substantiated that the period of termination of a legal relationship, covering the period from the expression of the will to terminate to the actual legal termination of the legal relationship, can be considered as a separate – terminal - stage of the legal relationship.

The key debatable issues of the dynamics of the legal relationship at this stage have been identified: the uncertainty of the moment of termination and the possibility of retrospective termination, as well as the ambiguity of the consequences of eliminating violations that served as the basis for the intention to terminate the legal relationship.

To theoretically substantiate the conclusions on these controversial issues, a classification of terminal stages is proposed according to the following criteria: form of termination (jurisdictional/non-jurisdictional), grounds for termination (due to violation/for other reasons), and the nature of the legal effect (ex nunc/ex tunc).

The following conclusions are formulated:

1) In the non-jurisdictional form of the terminal stage, the choice of whether the legal relationship will be terminated prospectively or retrospectively depends on the agreement of the parties.

2) In the jurisdictional form of the terminal stage, the possibility of retrospective termination is related to whether an appeal to a jurisdictional or administrative authority is legally binding or caused by a dispute. If such an appeal is mandatory, termination occurs only from the moment the relevant authority makes a decision (or its entry into force), i.e. not retrospectively; if the appeal is due to the counterparty's unwillingness to terminate legal relations on the basis of an agreement, then the jurisdictional authority may terminate legal relations from the moment when all other elements of the legal structure necessary for termination have occurred. legal relations, in fact, regulatory legal relations were not carried out, and the party that subsequently applied for termination in a jurisdictional manner communicated to the counterparty the will to terminate the legal relationship.;

3) After informing the counterparty of the will to terminate the legal relationship, the elimination of the causes (violations) cannot become an obstacle to such termination, including as a result of an appeal to a jurisdictional authority, since a protective legal relationship has already arisen, the content of which is the right to demand termination of regulatory relations. If the termination of a legal relationship is not related to violations committed by the other party, then it certainly cannot prevent such termination by its unilateral actions. The "healing" of a legal relationship – the termination of a protective legal relationship and the preservation of a regulatory one – is possible at the will of both parties or at the initiative of the person who announced such termination (for example, by rejecting a claim).