ON MANDATORY AND OPTIONAL ATTRIBUTES OF A LEGALLY SIGNIFICANT MESSAGE

This article attempts to identify and systematize the characteristics of legally significant message as one of the most debated categories in civil law theory. The research is based on the normative content of Art. 165.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and specific references to communications in the provisions of civil legislation. The research employs formal-legal and system-functional methods, as well as general scientific research methods. Comparing existing scholarly characterizations of legally significant message, the author concludes that legally significant message is a lawful volitional action entailing civil law consequences in the form of the performance of a legal act, through compliance with the procedure of delivering the message to the addressee or the fiction of such delivery. The research demonstrates that legally significant message is fundamentally distinct from other legal facts or notifications in public law and its mechanism of effect is exclusively linked to the procedure of delivering the message, rather than to the perception or awareness of the addressee.  The article identifies principal characteristics, including lawfulness, volitional character, addressability, and the presence of civil law consequences, as well as optional characteristics: reciprocity and exclusivity.