Legal Regime of Spousal Property Under the Legislation of Ukraine and European Countries

The legal regime of marital property is regulated by the legislation of all countries of the world. In some countries (Ukraine, Holland, Italy) the community of marital property is presumed; some provide for a special regime – community of income in marriage (Germany, Greece, Cyprus); in other countries (Austria) separation of marital property is presumed with certain restrictions. Despite the general requirements of the legislator, in all countries, it is permitted, by mutual consent of the spouses, to change the legal regime of property from private ownership to joint ownership by concluding a marriage contract. The terms of the marriage contract proposed by the legislator generally have both common and distinctive features, therefore, the legislation of the country where this contract is concluded should be taken into account, taking into account the legislator’s approach. The relevance of the chosen topic is due to the fact that today many marriages are concluded by persons of different nationalities, who live in different countries, have property abroad. In such international marriages, the question always arises as to which country’s legislation applies to their specific case. Therefore, it is relevant to consider the outlined topic with an element of comparing the requirements of the legislation in individual countries. The purpose of the article is to analyze the legislation and practice of Ukraine, Germany, France, Greece, Cyprus, Austria and other countries regarding the legal regime of marital property and to resolve the issue of the application of legislation to spouses residing in certain countries. When writing the article, a system of methods of cognition at the philosophical, general scientific, and special levels was used. Based on the study, the author concludes that the legal regime of marital property is determined depending on whether it is established by the legislator or by the spouses themselves – the participants to property relations. The author of the article makes a recommendation for a wider application of the contractual regime of marital property, under which the spouses will clearly define the provisions on the jointness and separation of all property acquired during marriage.