Ensuring the Reliability of Real Estate Transactions in Russia

Real Estate Finance. 2023. Vol. 3. No. 4. P. 178–188.

Molodyko K.

The current academic debate on vindication from bona fide acquirers has focused on whether to award damages, in specific factual circumstances, to the first owner of the property, or the latter, or intermediate owners. I demonstrate that the actual case-law of the Constitutional Court of Russia on vindication is sometimes contradictory, however, the court contributed a lot to improve protection of bona fide acquirers. The Russian parliament has introduced some compensation for losses from the vindication of housing and is gradually increasing it. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive prevention of unfair vindications, which led to a series of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights against Russia on vindication disputes. I argue that the rules of vindication established by the legislators in different societies are based on political economic considerations. My hypothesis is that if there is a generally recognized public interest in the accelerated turnover of certain types of property, in particular, such as money and bearer securities, then there is also a contrary public interest in the slower turnover of some other types of property.

Keywords: Европейский Суд по правам человека, European Court of Human Rights, виндикация, constitutional justice, конституционная юстиция, vindication, добросовестный приобретатель, bona fide purchaser