Public corporation

A public corporation is a Moral person of public Droit financed by public funds and which must fulfill a mission of general interest. They are distinguished from the state enterprises which are moral persons of private law to public capital which does not fulfill necessarily a mission of general interest.

In Canada

August 1st

In France

In French Right, a public corporation is a Moral person of public Droit, having a certain administrative autonomy and financial (contrary to a Central administration of the State for example) in order to fulfill a mission of general interest, precisely definite.

The fields of intervention of the public corporations are varied but the majority fulfill a mission of an economic nature or social. It can be a question of the field of health (ex: arranges French blood), teaching (universities, colleges), culture (certain museums), economy (state enterprises having the statute of EPIC).

Certain establishments are single, others conversely belong to “series” of establishments of the same type functioning on the same model. This distinction is sometimes subtle: thus the universities, which are often very different, form a series of establishment of the same type, while the Musée of Louvre and the Musée of Orsay are regarded as being single.

Beyond the multiplicity of the denominations, general characters with all the public corporations can be released. If the standards to which the public corporations are subjected vary much of the one with the other, the Jurisprudence and the doctrines release two principal types of public corporations: the public corporations related to administration (EPA) and the public corporations related to commercial industrial and (EPIC). However, certain public corporations jointly exert public service missions related to administration and public service missions related to commercial industrial and.

Common elements

Public corporations, public people

The public corporations, even those related to commercial industrial and, are moral persons of public law. They can thus exert certain rights reserved to the Public power, like:

to be owner of goods of the public domain;
to exert the right of expropriation;
to be invested of being able of administrative Police;
to profit from the Privilege of the precondition.

Principle of fastening

Each public corporation is attached in theory to an administration which controls it. There exist thus national public corporations attached to the State and local public corporations attached to a common , a grouping of communes, a department, a area or a Collectivité of overseas. But the identity of the administration of fastening does not determine the geographical area of action of the public corporation. Thus a local public corporation can have a sphere of activity to the national scales, even international, at least indirectly.

This principle of fastening however is attenuated insofar as certain public corporations have a role of co-operation between several communities: it is typically the case of the public corporations of inter-commune co-operation or of the National center and the accounts centres of the territorial public function.

Principle of speciality

Contrary to the State or the territorial collectivities which have a field of competence general without limitation express, the public corporations have a mission of which they cannot leave.

Creation, statute and evolution

Under the terms of the article 34 of the Constitution, only a Loi can create a new type of public corporation. The public corporations themselves are generally created by decree for the national establishments and by deliberation of the community which they concern for the local establishments, but the laws envisage sometimes different rules.

The public corporations are created:

is of all coins, possibly by giving an autonomy to a service formerly carried out in governed direct (e.g. the Monnaie of Paris);
is by transformation of another public corporation (National office of water and the aquatic environments) or of a moral person of private law (association generally; e.g. Academy of technologies) or public (Grouping of public interest, for example National agency of research);
is by fusion between two or several public corporations;
is by scission of another public corporation (Rail network of France).

Any public corporation has a Statut which fixes its attributions and the methods of its operation. That of the national public corporations in single matter is fixed by decree, that of the public corporations belonging to a series is prepared by the establishment itself in the respect of legislative measures or lawful general and approved then by the authority. The statute of the local public corporations is fixed by deliberation of the community of fastening.

The public corporations can be dissolved if the object for which they had been created does not take place any more to be or if the service is taken again in direct control or conceded with the private sector. The law of separation of the Churches and the State in 1905 involved the dissolution of hundreds of public corporations of the worship. The public corporations can also amalgamate. A law can also pronounce the Privatization of a public corporation and its transformation into Public limit company (e.g. Électricité de France).

Operation and control

The administration of a public corporation is generally entrusted jointly to two bodies:

a deliberating assembly (generally called Board of directors) fixes the main trends;
a person is in charge of the administration to the daily newspaper: according to the cases, it is the chairman of the board or a director or managing director not forming part of the deliberating assembly (except on a purely consutatif basis).

The public corporations all are subjected to the control of other public people. The law and the statutes specify the methods of them. Three cases are possible:

is the controlling authority exerts a Contrôle of legality;
is the establishment is subjected to a capacity of Administrative supervision (one speaks about “Official Authority”);
is the establishment knows at the same time the control of legality and the administrative supervision, but exerted by distinct authorities.

Cardinal distinction: EPA and EPIC

Beyond the multiple denominations stated by the legislator, jurisprudence and the doctrines distinguish however only two categories of public corporations:

the public corporations related to administration (EPA);
the public corporations related to commercial industrial and (EPIC).

All in all, the EPA are subjected almost exclusively to the public Droit, while the EPIC are mainly governed by the Private law. This distinction involves the following consequences:

However, in practice, this distinction is far from being absolute and knows many exceptions. The management staff of the EPIC is generally civil servant, certain EPIC received law the right to recruit civils servant, while certain EPA also employ the contractual ones of private law.

EPA can have an accountancy held according to the plane accountant applicable to the companies, but certain EPIC provided with a Comptable public can be partially subjected to the general Règlement on the public accounts.

Although the public corporations related to commercial industrial and are close to the moral persons of private law with many regards, they profit, as a moral person of public law, certain privileges of public law.

Types of public corporations

The legislator defined many types of public corporations.

local Public corporations of teaching (EPLE) (which belongs to the EPA)
Public corporations in scientific and technological matter (EPST)
Public corporations in scientific, cultural and professional matter (EPSCP)
Public corporations of scientific co-operation (EPCS)
Public corporations of cultural co-operation (EPCC)
economic Public corporations
Public corporations of inter-commune co-operation (EPCI)
Public corporations of health (EPS)
Public corporations of the worship
Offices public of the habitat (OPH), which succeed the public OPAC and Officices of HLM (OPHLM).
Case of the schools (local Public corporations)

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