РУАЭСТ (RUAEST)
ON THE ISSUE OF ORGANIZATIONAL AND LEGAL FORMS OF OFFSHORE COMPANIES: CIVIL LAW VIEW
The paper examines the main legal forms of legal entities, the use of which is characteristic of the commercial activities in «ofsfhore» zones and jurisdictions which enable the creation of preferential tax, financial, informational and legal conditions for entrepreneurs. The article gives a critical assessment of utilitarian and applied approaches to the study of commercial structures involved in the «ofsfhore» business organization schemes. Atetntion is drawn to the lack of the necessary conceptual and terminological uniformity and systemacy in the area in question. A particular emphasis is made on civil law nature of the legal form of a legal entity. The author studies various classifications of «ofsfhore» organizations from these positions, analyzes key legal models of collective entrepreneurship in common law countries and civil law countries of Europe, highlights the difefrences between the types of organizational and legal forms of legal entities and variants of «ofsfhore» businesses of one form. The interrelation between classical legal forms of commercial legal entities and similar legal structures applied in «ofsfhore» activities are considered in the vein of civil law. The author also compares them with the new models of entrepreneurship, functioning on the basis of the governing mechanisms of «private law»