Competition between Family Law Contracts and Mediation Agreements Aimed at Regulating Family Law Disputes

The paper attempts to resolve the issues that arose in connection with the introduction in 2019 of amendments to the Federal Law «On Alternative Dispute Resolution Procedure with the Participation of a Mediator (Mediation Procedure)" in terms of endowing a notarized mediation agreement with the force of an execution order: whether this agreement is capable of replacing a marriage contract, an agreement on the division of common property of spouses, an agreement on the payment of alimony, i.e. agreements subject to mandatory notarization. Also, the paper dwells on whether mediation agreements achieved in a dispute concerning the child’s place of residence and determining the order of communication of the child with a separate parent without transferring this dispute to the court after their notarization acquire the force of an execution order.

According to the author, not every agreement adopted as part of the out-of-court mediation procedure can be attributed to mediation agreements subject to notary certification and having the force of an enforcement document. A marriage contract and an agreement on the division of common property of spouses concluded as a result of the outof-court mediation procedure, as well as an agreement on determining the place of residence of the child generating the personal non-property right of the parent, cannot constitute the content of a mediation agreement. A child support obligation cannot arise and cannot be enforced on the basis of a mediation agreement due to special rules concerning a single contractual basis for the emergence of a child support obligation (a child support agreement). A mediation agreement may not include conditions defining the procedure for exercising the rights of a parent living separately from a child protected by the power of enforcement.

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