3 Nationality of Corporations and Assets

Corporations: the juridical person needs a nationality for protection (expropriation claims, war claims, treaty benefits). The tests (the four to list):1. Place of incorporation (the certificate's state — the common-law default);2. Siège social/registered office (the civil-law default);3. Centre of administration/management (the operations test);4. Control test (the shareholders' nationality — the wartime era's invention: the Daimler case's enemy-character litigation), and the modern compromise — the Barcelona Traction era's calibration. The Barcelona Traction case (ICJ, 1970) — the unit's anchor: the Court held (against Canada's claim for its shareholders) that the corporation's own national state — the state of incorporation (Belgium, which had succeeded to the claim) — has the diplomatic- protection title; shareholders as such have no independent claim. The practical relevance for Nepal: foreign investment protection's structures (the BIT-era claimant nationality — the investor defined by incorporation/agreement — Nepal's investment treaties) and the state's jurisdiction over companies (Nepali company law's incorporation test).Assets: nationality of claims — movable property follows the owner's nationality for protection purposes; immovable property follows the lex situs (the situs state's courts and law — the private- international-law rule with public-law echoes in war claims and treaty devolutions); claims (debts) travel with the creditor — the nationality of assets matters in war, peace-treaty and succession practice (Unit 4's property-succession consequences).