The Legal Status of Legal Entities in Private International Law

Y.E. Petrova The Legal Status of the Legal Entities in Private International Law This graduate paper is aimed at investigating major issues pertaining to the legal status of the legal entities in private international law. The substantial goal of this research is to examine the legal origin of the terms “nationality” and the “personal law” (lex societatis) of the company, to identify how do they correlate with each other; to analyze the main criteria in defining of nationality of a legal body; to see into the basic questions referred to the unification of the laws regulating the major issues of the legal body; to analyze the problem of transfer of the companies’ seat in the EU law. Based on this research the following conclusions were made: firstly, the terms “nationality” and “lex societatis” are not identical, because the term “nationality” is much wider and is used not only in private legal relations but in the sphere of legal public relations. Secondly, no one of the criterion in defining of the nationality of the legal body meet the modern requirements of the international commercial exchange. Thirdly, before now there is no unified concept of identifying of nationality of the legal body which impedes the international economic integration. Fourthly, the advantages and disadvantages of the unification method in governing the relations concerning the questions related to the determination of the legal body’s nationality and it’s applicable law were demonstrated. Finally, the absence of the unified tendency in defining the legal entity’s applicable law during the transfer of the company’s seat in the European Union law was revealed. Academic Supervisor: Dmitryy Maksimov. senior lecturer of the Faculty of Law, National Research University “The Higher School of Economics”.