The Place of Absolute Civil Rights in the System of Legal Regulation of Relations in Merchant Shipping

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the place of absolute civil rights in the system of legal regulation of relations in merchant shipping. The main objectives of the study are to identify the role and general legal features of absolute civil rights exercised in the field of merchant shipping, as well as the search for optimal directions of improvement of civil legislation regulating the relevant relations.
The paper characterizes the interaction between absolute and relative rights in the process of regulating relations in merchant shipping. It is established that property rights, due to their absolute nature, constitute the legal basis for the formation of legally binding relations under private and public law. In turn, the content of property rights is actively affected by public goals and tasks of legal regulation of relations arising in merchant shipping. For example, the extension of the status of an immovable property to a marine vessel is preconditioned due to the tasks of ensuring public policy in the field of commercial navigation. The author highlights the main material objects of property rights. Particular attention is paid to the peculiarities of the property law regime applied to the sea vessel and the objectives of establishing these peculiarities. The author summerizes the main normative and doctrinal approaches to the definition of the concept of a “vessel” and substantiates the necessity of a single normative consolidation of this concept in the legislation of the Russian Federation and international law instruments.
The author differentiates between absolute and relative relations in the field of commercial navigation. The author substantiates the property and legal nature of the relationship arising with regard to sea vessel possession when the vessel is leased out, as well as possession of the cargo on board of the vessel. The author makes proposals concerning inclusion in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation of certain provisions on possession of a thing, as well as proposals on the development of special legal norms governing limited property rights to objects of merchant shipping.

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