A way to establish the multifunctional agriculture : the notion of territory - In order to translate in law the political objective of assistance to the multifunctional agriculture, the European and french legislators used a specific notion : "territory". This article is aiming to analyses and explain this mechanism of translation. The idea of "territory" is very delicate to handle; it conceals many facets : when "territory" is used as a simple calculation modality of the public aids or of the agricultural activity, it remains subsidiary and subject to the sectoral logic dominating in agricultural law. On the other hand, when it becomes a true qualification tool - foundation of a right according to a geographic location - the agricultural law may become a mixed law for the agricultural exploitations and the rural territories. This technical function of the "territory" is reinforced by his conceptual aspect : "territory" is a base of a new social and economical representations of agriculture.
