Annotation

The article examines the legal nature of non-profit corporate organizations operating in the Russian Federation without acquiring legal entity status. The purpose of the research is to identify the correlation between the legal concept of a non-profit corporate organization in civil legislation and the existing forms of collective self-organization that function without state registration. The methodological framework includes formal legal, systemic, and comparative legal methods. The study analyzes the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the Federal Law “On Public Associations,” and the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation,” as well as contemporary doctrinal approaches to corporate characteristics, organizational unity, and associations acting without legal entity status. It is established that current law does not recognize an independent organizational and legal form of a non-profit corporate organization without legal personality, however, it allows the existence of associations possessing separate corporate features. The article argues that such entities should be regarded as organizationally structured non-profit communities acting corporately in their internal sphere while entering external relations through specific individuals. The author distinguishes intra-organizational collective bodies, informal citizen associations, and institutionalized unregistered public associations. The results may be used in civil law doctrine, legislative improvement, and legal practice when determining the status of parent committees, clubs, hobby groups, and other forms of collective self-organization.