Une analyse historique de la nature juridique de la firme

This article, which is based on a law and economics perspective, is a contribution to both the economics of the firm and the history of legal thought. The article aims to benefit from a detailed survey of an old and original literature in order to propose a critical analysis of the nexus-of-contracts paradigm that reduces the firm to a legal fiction. Conversely, it is shown that it is fruitful to reconsider the singular ontological approach to the firm as a real (collective) entity, which takes into account its irreducible social dimension. For us, this innovating view of the firm is able to bring new analytical foundations to understand the complexity of this primary institution of capitalism