Comment la loi a instauré l’entreprise comme un acteur politique. Analyse historique et théorique de la loi Pacte et de la loi sur le devoir de vigilance

The literature extensively discusses the implications of the de facto political activities of contemporary corporations. Today's context, however, raises new fundamental questions about such activities. Is our political framework still valid when we consider the worldwide and creative power of business enterprises? Should this framework not allow, or even oblige, enterprises to address the great challenges we face today? Which framework would ensure that the power of corporations can be ‘well managed' or, in other words, directed towards the collective interest? This article shows that French law has introduced important legal innovations that offer original answers to these questions. It created the devoir de vigilance in 2017 that imposed a "duty of diligence" on firms. In 2019, with the Pacte law, France again imposed new obligations on all corporations and introduced the possibility for a firm to register as a "mission-led" corporation. We argue that these legal innovations established de jure the corporation as a political actor from both a theoretical and legal point of view. We also argue that these new laws build upon a new conceptualization of the enterprise. The enterprise is not only an economic and productive entity; it is also a power base for creative creation. Although these legal innovations are still too recent for their impact to be understood, we explain how they question the notion of the freedom of enterprise and classical political theory itself.