After high school, he entered the Law Faculty of the Leningrad State University in 1956. As a student, he became interested in civil and international private law. After graduating from the University in 1961, he was recommended for a postgraduate course.

In 1964, V.A. Musin defended his Ph.D. thesis The Legal Entity Concept. After the postgraduate course, he worked for three years at the Central Maritime Research and Development Institute, where he dealt with issues of the international maritime law, maritime trade, and commercial practice.

In 1967, V.A. Musin started working at the Leningrad University at the Department of Civil Law, where his teaching career took him through all the stages from assistant to professor. In 1976, he defended his doctoral thesis The Marine Insurance Contract under Soviet and Foreign Law. Insurance of Ships and Cargoes.

From 1989 to December 22, 2019, V.A. Musin headed the Department of Civil Procedure of the Law Faculty of the Saint Petersburg State University.

V.A. Musin headed the Saint Petersburg branch of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2008, V.A. Musin was elected corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In 2004–2008, V.A. Musin was a Deputy Delegate from the Russian Federation in the European Commission For Democracy through Law (Venice Commission).

In 2006–2009, V.A. Musin served as an ad hoc judge at the European Court of Human Rights.

From 2009 to December 22, 2015, he was a member of the Board of Directors of Gazprom, PJSC.

In 2020, numerous requests of V.A. Musin’s students and colleagues prompted the establishment of V.A. Musin Research Center for the Development of Energy Law and Modern Legal Science, Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization. The Research Center was founded to commemorate V.A. Musin, a leading Russian lawyer, and perform scientific, educational, and expert activities on current issues of legal regulation and provide scientific and methodological support to young scientists and specialists in the fuel and energy complex. According to A.B. Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom, PJSC, V.A. Musin Research Center for the Development of Energy Law and Modern Legal Science, Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization, will further implement activities of the Energy Law Center of Saint-Petersburg State Economic University as a separate legal entity.