Annotation

The article examines the problem of excluding the descendants of an unworthy heir from succession, its historical background, and the evolution of the institution of unworthiness from the earliest legal monuments to modern Russian legislation; a conclusion is drawn regarding the radical nature of the current rule, which extends the sanction for culpable conduct to an entire line of succession. A comparative legal systematization of the approaches of European, Latin American, and Chinese legal systems to the personal character of unworthiness is then offered. Current doctrinal and judicial approaches in Anglo-American law are analyzed, including the “expanded slayer rule” and the multi-factor test for assessing the permissibility of excluding descendants. In conclusion, the article formulates the uniqueness of the Russian model, which presumes the bad faith of descendants based solely on their kinship with the unworthy heir, and raises the question of the need to reform paragraph 3 of Article 1146 of the Russian Civil Code: enshrining the principle of personal responsibility and allowing the exclusion of descendants only as an exceptional judicial measure upon proof of a mercenary purpose and a real threat of indirect enrichment of the wrongdoer.