Escheat: analysis of legal status

Abstract

The relevance of the article is due to the fact that the problems of theoretical comprehension of escheat has not been solved in legal science. The article’s objective – is to establish the structural elements of legal status of escheat. To achieve the article’s objective the author has analyzed general theoretical positions to determine and characterize the object of the rights, the object of civil rights and legal status of the object of civil rights.

It has been concluded that the legal status of the object of civil rights consists of the following elements: a) physical (material) characteristics of the object as a subject of the world; b) the place of the object in the system of the objects of the rights; c) the relationship between the object and the subject in the form of volitional orientation of the subject on the object that enables the object of the rights to be potentially involved in appropriate legal relations.

Escheat – is a legal status of the object, where there is no relationship between the object and the subject of possession. The lack of relationship in the legal status of escheat is caused by its demise due to the absence of private interest to possess the property by the object because of the lack of the subject’s deed – a potential holder and refusal of the subjects to accept the ownership of the object based on inheritance. There is no volitional relationship in the form of private endeavors on the property object in the status of escheat between the property and private owner. It has been proved that the primary defect of the status is the absence of the subject in the status of ownerless property; and in the status of escheat it is the lack of relationship between the subject and the object. This is the main difference between ownerless property and escheat.