The nationality of companies in French law ; La nationalité des sociétés en droit français

The development of international economic relations and the construction of an integrated European area, both from an economic and a political point of view, has revived the debate on the nationality of trading companies. The question is not so much whether trading companies have a nationality on an equal footing with natural persons – solutions have long been accepted by international doctrine and jurisprudence – but rather to determine how this notion has evolved and adapted to the constraints on the one hand, of a globalized market economy and, on the other hand, of European Union law which overturns the traditionally accepted solutions of nationality of trading companies into the legal systems of Member States. Thus, the criteria for the legal connection of a company to a State determined by the rules of private international law of each Member State are inevitably directed towards the Anglo-Saxon criterion of incorporation. The emergence of new European Union legal entities such as the European Company or the future European Private Company also raises the issue of nationality and the law applicable to this type of European legal entities. The same applies to groups of companies whose regulation of their activities could be revived under European Union law. ; Le développement des relations économiques internationales et la construction d’un espace européen intégré tant d’un point de vue économique que politique a relancé le débat sur la nationalité des sociétés. La question n’est pas tant de savoir si les sociétés commerciales disposent d’une nationalité au même titre que les personnes physiques – les solutions en la matière sont depuis longtemps acceptées par la doctrine et la jurisprudence internationales – mais plutôt de déterminer comment cette notion a évolué et s’adapte aux contraintes d’une part, d’une économie de marché mondialisée et d’autre part, du droit de l’Union européenne qui bouleverse les solutions traditionnellement admises en matière de nationalité des sociétés dans les droits internes ...