Legal grounds for the emergence of security (pledge) relations in Russian law: theory and case law

the article examines the contemporary regulation of pledge relations in Russian law, with an emphasis on the triad of requirements governing a pledge – form, content, and state registration (recordation) – and their practical application in light of case law from 2023-2025. It shows that under Art. 334.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation [1] (hereinafter, the Civil Code) a pledge may arise either by contract or by operation of law; it further sets out the imperatives of Arts. 339, 339.1, 340, and 348 of the Civil Code and the corresponding provisions of the Federal Law “On Mortgage (Pledge of Immovable Property)” [2] (hereinafter, the Mortgage Law; Federal Law No. 102-FZ) on extrajudicial foreclosure and disproportionality criteria. Using specific decisions of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the paper analyzes problematic issues such as the adequacy of collateral identification, the relationship between the registration and contractual regimes, and the limits of the good-faith purchaser doctrine. It substantiates the hypothesis that recordation of a pledge over movable property should be afforded constitutive effect for opposability to third parties. A targeted amendment is proposed to Art. 339.1 of the Civil Code and Art. 103.1 of the Fundamentals of the Legislation of the Russian Federation on Notariat [3], establishing mandatory recordation for the creation and opposability of a pledge right over movables where the creditor does not have possession.

pledge, mortgage, pledge agreement, pledge by operation of law, form of the contract, essential terms, state registration (recordation), bona fide purchaser, disproportionality, extrajudicial foreclosure