The Civil Law Regime Governing Immaterial Values in the Russian Federation

The increasing importance of immaterial values necessitates further legal investigation into their significance and protection. This article addresses two theoretical problems identified by the author, aiming to resolve them. First, it considers the role of personal non-property rights in legal transactions, focusing on their growing involvement and the need to clarify the concept of “non-property”. Using a deduction approach, the author proposes a return to the established term “personal rights”, which relates to values inherent to personality and belonging to individuals as such. The distinction is made between the level of protection afforded to two categories of rights: rights of personality and rights of a person as an ordinary citizen. The author addresses this distinction further in the second part of the article, which discussed questions of liability. The key findings are that three avenues exist for recovering damages: First, when explicitly provided for in cases of personal rights violations related to honor, dignity and reputation. Second, when the values in question relate to individuality, such as life, health, and personal immunity, protected under Chapter 59 of Civil Code of the Russian Federation and Article 1082, which authorizes courts to impose losses on tortfeasors instead of harm compensation in kind. Third, a damages claim can be filed for any breache of personal rights as subsidiary remedy (Article 15 of CC of RF). This framework is favorable for immaterial asserts, which, in accordance with international standards, are subject to the strictest protection (Busnelli et al., 2005).