The institute of legal entity and its development in the representation of P.I. Stuchka

The discussion of the draft Civil Code of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the act itself after its adoption in scientific legal journalism led to the appearance of many books and articles, the authors of which touched upon, among other things, the problem of a legal entity. Legal institutions underwent significant changes in comparison with their interpretation in pre-revolutionary Russian law, which required theoretical justification for institutional changes. The institution of a legal entity was the subject of a few norms introduced into the civil legislation of Soviet Russia by 1923, and in some works P.I. Stuchka presented his view of a legal entity as a new subject of rights. From the analysis of his works it follows that he used the comparative legal method in revealing the experience of reflection in legal theories and laws of European countries of a pseudo-person, recognized the fictitiousness of a legal entity and gave well-founded critical comments. However, at the same time, they allowed for contradictory assessments; not all elements of the theory of a legal entity were provided with clear and unambiguous explanations, in particular on issues of the significance of labor and representation of the interests of a legal entity in external legal relations with its participation. The author comes to the conclusion that a legal entity represents, in addition to a form of association of persons or property, a form of association and legal separation of the labor function of employees and their labor itself.