Recognition of public utility through the Council of State archives : marginal notes, deletions and hand-written addenda in documents exchanged between Councillors of State and Cabinet Ministers, France 1901-1914 The 1901 law on associations confirmed the evolution of the French Republic toward the acceptance of intermediary bodies between the State and citizens. However, the evolution was limited in scope: defining the general interest remained a prerogative of the State, which entrusted some associations to pursue the common good under its control. It is the reason why the article 10 of the law granted legal personality only to associations recognised as being of “public utility” by a decree of the Council of State. But neither the 1901 law nor the application decree made the criteria of this recognition explicit. Therefore, this paper will analyse these criteria through administrative practices. In the considered period, the Council of State examined more than 500 applications, which led delegates of associations, Cabinet Ministers and Councillors of State to exchange numerous documents: annotated, crossed-out drafts of decrees, letters and notes. Such writings destroy the view of the State as a monolith, imposing a top-down, a priori defined general interest: on the contrary, decisions resulted from disputed negotiations between different actors. They rose from power relations closely related to diverging conceptions of “public utility”, either connected to State continuity or to political considerations.