Assurances about Circumstances as a New Institute of Russian Contract Law

This master’s thesis contains an analysis of English legal regulations pertaining to representations and warranties and regulations on assurances about circumstances (Art. 431.2 of the Civil Code of the RF) which have been recently introduced to Russian law. The following research methods have been used in the process of drafting the thesis: comparative law research, formal logical analysis, case law analysis, statute law analysis. The objective of this master’s thesis is to define the place of the regulations on assurances about circumstances, introduced to Russian law by Art. 431.2 of the civil code of the RF, within the framework of the Russian civil law. The following tasks were completed in order to attain this objective: 1) to overview the historical development of English regulations on representations and warranties and the process of their merging into a single legal institute; 2) to overview clauses analogous to representations and warranties which contracting parties had tended to include into contracts governed by Russian law before Art. 431.2 was introduced to the Civil Code of the RF; 3) to analyze Art. 431.2 of the Civil Code of the RF in comparison with English regulations on representations and warranties; 4) to attempt a critical analysis of Art. 431.2 of the Civil Code of the RF and to identify possible problems which may arise in application of this clause. The final conclusion is as follows: Art. 431.2 of the Civil Code of the RF falls out of the system of Russian civil law for two reasons: 1) it is not possible to state whether the liability under Art. 431.2 of the Civil Code of the RF is in contract or in tort; 2) regulations about assurances on circumstances may not be reconciled with jural facts doctrine.