GENERAL POWER OF ATTORNEY UNDER THE LAW OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES AND UKRAINE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the research and analysis of legal provisions of the national legislation of the European Union member states regarding the regulation of the institute of general power of attorney. Based on this, and taking into account the peculiarities of domestic law enforcement and legal technic, the author formulates proposals for the improvement of the institution of contractual representation, reflected in the norms of modern Ukrainian civil legislation, in the light of the legal introduction to the latest the prescriptions, which would consolidate the legal structure of the general power of attorney in the Civil Code of Ukraine. The initial thesis for the implementation of this scientific and practical task is the principle of legal certainty and the need, determined by practice, for the normative establishment of the legal nature of the general power of attorney, which can lead to the solution of numerous difficulties with its notarization, determination of the scope (list) of the representative’s powers, the acceptability of such a power of attorney for state authorities. It is proposed to add a new article to the Civil Code of Ukraine, namely Art. 244-1, according to which the division of powers of attorney into general and special ones will be fixed, the key types of general power of attorney will be outlined, the presumption of the “operational” nature of the general power of attorney established, if it does not contain any specification of the range of powers or the scope of their exercise by the representative, as well as will be established the obligation of determination in the general power of attorney of the fact of transfer to the representative by the principal of the rights to dispose of property, belonging to the latter. It is predicted that in connection with the inclusion of the proposed prescriptions in the Civil Code of Ukraine, not only the necessary legislative consolidation of the so-called “general” power of attorney as a transaction widespread in the practice of representative relations will take place, but also a number of law enforcement problems related to the interpretation of the scope of powers granted to the representative, according to the general power of attorney, will be resolved.