On the Issue of “Concluding a Contract” in the Projection of the Perception of Contractual Relations in the Pre-Revolutionary, Soviet and Modern Periods

Introduction: the issue of concluding a contract, as a non-momentary process, regulated by the general norms of the civil legislation of the Russian Federation (Article 432 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), is still debatable in both scientific and practical terms. Such a phenomenon is caused by the absence in the legislation and the lack of consolidation of the dynamics of the stages of concluding a civil contract as a single process, whose end result is perfection (the effective time of the contract), which generates the emergence of mutually defined rights and obligations of the parties to the contract. The identification of modern trends, the analysis of the development of the science of civil law on the issues of the dynamic process of concluding a contract, the disclosure of the imperfections of modern formulations of the civil legislation is the purpose of the study. Methods: the methodological framework for the research is a set of methods of scientific cognition, among which the main ones are analysis, synthesis, generalization and comparative jurisprudence. Results: the study analyzes the pre-revolutionary, Soviet and modern understanding of the civil legislation provisions for the concluding a contract, in particular, determining the time of its conclusion and the emergence of the rights and obligations of the parties. The revealed doctrinal understanding of the time of concluding a contract, set out in the results of the scientific research of civilists of various periods, allowed us to find that the process of concluding a civil contract is a stepwise process. At various stages of its conclusion, the roles of the parties have specificity due to the time of the will of the party entering into the transaction. Conclusions: the scientific theses on the conclusion of a civil contract, formulated by pre-revolutionary and Soviet civil law, at the present stage of development of the economic system, introducing more and more means and technologies of information and communication interaction, do not have relevance for current participants in civil turnover. The author has formulated the proposals for the modernization of the civil legislation of the Russian Federation aimed at leveling the issues of the stages of concluding a contract, and reflecting its ultimate goal – the time of entry into force of the contract (perfection).