Civil Code of the Russian Federation

The Civil Code of the Russian Federation is the prime source of civil law for the Russian Federation, a system descended from Roman law through the Byzantine tradition and heavily influenced by German and Dutch legal norms in the 18th and 19th centuries, with socialist-style modifications during the Soviet period from 1922 to 1991 and Continental European influences since the 1990s. The code came into force in four parts: the first, on general provisions, was enacted by the State Duma in 1994 and took effect in 1995; the second, on the law of obligations, took effect in 1996; the third, on succession law, took effect in 2002; and the fourth, on intellectual property, was signed into law in December 2006 and took effect on 1 January 2008, becoming the first complete codification of intellectual property legislation in the world. The code establishes basic principles including equality of all participants under civil law, inviolability of private property, freedom of contract, and free exercise and judicial protection of civil rights.