Highlights of draft rules on Civil Code's basic principles

A robot helps customers at a bank branch in Handan, North China's Hebei province, on March 29, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

5. Non-legal person organizations

The townsmen associations, branches of banks and TV programs could not be identified as natural persons, and they are not qualified as legal persons, but they still carry out civil activities in their names.

Draft: Non-legal organizations are those which do not have a legal personality but can carry out civil activities in their names under the law. The draft also names some organizations, such as individual proprietorship enterprises and partnership enterprises and the branches of for-profit and non-profit legal persons.

Interpretation: Li said a non-legal organization was between the natural person and legal person, and it could be considered as the collection of people, having corresponding capacity for civil rights and civil conduct. The draft stipulates major aspects of the organizations, such as the registration, establishment, representatives, venues and dissolution. Because there are different kinds of non-legal person organizations, the draft does not specify too many details.