French law – Legal entities under public law

Title 1 – Public persons

Chapter 1 – Legal persons governed by public law

Section 1 – The legal person

The notion of a legal person has been debated by authors, some considering that it really exists, by the will of the group or by analogy with the human person, others that it is a pure fiction.

Wayne: “The legal person is a center of socially protected interests.”

The public person is therefore a collective holder of rights and obligations.

This gives two advantages to the notion of a legal person:

1. The legal entity is the owner of its own assets.
2. It is responsible for the acts produced in its name.

Section 2 – Opposition between legal persons under public law and those under private law.

Unlike legal persons under private law, legal persons under public law are

1. created by the public authority
2. they pursue the public interest as their goal
3. membership of this entity is compulsory

However, this opposition between legal persons governed by private law and public law is becoming increasingly blurred and ambiguous in practice: some legal persons governed by public law are subject to private law (including industrial and commercial establishments), and conversely, some legal persons governed by private law are subject to public law.

Section 3 – Opposition between legal persons governed by public law and unincorporated public bodies

Some administrative districts are public bodies but do not have legal personality.

This is the case of the canton, the district and several specialized administrations.

Section 4 – Classification of legal persons under public law

A distinction must be made among legal persons governed by public law:

1. Local authorities
2. Specialized bodies entrusted with a task of general interest (e.g. hospitals, universities, etc.)
3. Public interest groups (GIP)
4. The Bank of France

→ Chapter 2 – Relations between public entities

→ Law Course Sheets – Administrative Organization

→ 50 Introductory Law Cards