Personne ... porteuse du besoin

15:19 Oct 25, 2018 

The personne physique and the personne morale referred to here are two completely different things. The personne physique is a human being, an individual, an actual person. The personne morale is a corporation or similar business entity.

So there is no "tacking on" here. "Personne physique ou morale" means, in plain English, "person or business entity." In legalese we say "legal or physical person."

And for the record, the term "corporate body" does not exist in English.

18:28 Oct 24, 2018 

In this case, the "personne morale" concerned is better described as a "corporate body". In fact, tacking on "personne physique" seems rather pointless.

16:47 Oct 24, 2018 

A "personne morale" is a "legal person" (business entity) as opposed to a "natural person" (human being). To translate, you can just use the word "person" once as in the French original: "Legal or physical person..."

14:56 Oct 24, 2018 

I meant using it as part of the definition: 'Project Owner means any legal or physical person defining..." etc. but only if it's suitable for your doc and if it works in English./Edited to take into account Eliza's message.

14:37 Oct 24, 2018 

Thanks. It isn't insurance. As noted in my question, this is part of the definition of the Project Owner in this contract document.

I've decided to translate it as : "The corporate body or individual person whose needs are satisfied by the project".

So, I'm closing the question.

13:58 Oct 24, 2018 

If this were about insurance, (entité/personne morale/physique) porteuse du besoin would be a synonym for maître d'ouvrage (cf. http://www.mbc-assurance-construction.fr/dommages-ouvrage/ma... and many others). Can you not use the usual translations of maître d'ouvrage ("principal"?, "project owner"?) here?