Re: Organization ontology

On 10-06-08 04:27, Todd Vincent wrote:
> In the law, there are two concepts (a) Person and (b) Entity.   

This is starting to get tangential I think. But would
be a fascinating area to try to model properly. I would
be very wary of attempting it without input from someone
with domain expertise - e.g. a barrister specialising in
private international law.

> Generally, these terms are used to distinguish who has the capacity to
> sue, be sued, or who lacks the capacity to sue or be sued. 

Absent litigation, the ability to enter into contracts
is key I think

> A *person* (human) can sue or be sued in an individual capacity, with
> 
> An *entity* must exist as a "legal person" under the laws of a state. 

For some purposes it's more complicated than that. It
boils down to recognition. "Exist[ing] ... under the
laws of a state" means that that state recognises the
entity. It doesn't necessarily mean that other states
will.

I once tried helping a Canadian corporation to get
organised to do business in Germany. It turned out to
be surprisingly difficult because Canada is not a
signatory to the 1961 Hague convention abolishing
legalisation requirements for documents. The Finanzamt
had no problem recognising it (why wouldn't they
recognise any potential taxpayer after all?) but
turned out to be impossible to open a bank account
without going through the complicated and expensive
process of getting an apostille affixed to the
incorporation papers. So in the context of doing
business in Germany was this organisation recognised?
Yes and no. If there were some circumstance that arose
leading to a lawsuit would it be named as a corporate
entity or would individuals acting on its behalf in
Germany be named individually? Unclear.

As I said, rather a tangent...

Cheers,
-w

-- 
William Waites           <william.waites@okfn.org>
Mob: +44 789 798 9965    Open Knowledge Foundation
Fax: +44 131 464 4948                Edinburgh, UK

Received on Tuesday, 8 June 2010 10:14:37 UTC