Modern Approaches to Classification of Legal Persons (to the 90th Anniversary of V.E. Chirkin)

Along with the existing in legislation of Russia division of legal persons into commercial and non-commerсial, which is based on economic criteria, the article substantiates the classification of legal persons according to legal basis into persons of private and public law; it singles out legal entities of transitional forms and defines juridic features inherent to them. Developing the existing provisions of Article 48 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the author proposes a revised general definition of a legal person and the definition of a legal person of public law.