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These are deep waters.
My experience: it is impossible to formulate rules because the "right" answer depends on many things. For example, in French a name of "De Something" would probably sort under 'D', while a name of "de Something" would sort under 'S'. Except that I have friends who insist that their last name is "de Something" (anti-nobility?) and other friends who insist equally strongly that their last name is "Something". One person I know whose name is something like "Jean Claude de la Rive Gauche" says that his last name is "Rive Gauche", but apparently his brother uses "de la Rive Gauche". The same is true with friends who have "van" in their name; some accept the implication of a noble family line and others do not. I am sure you will run into the same thing with "von", "del", "della", "du", and the like.
The "Van Lustbader" example given earlier is illustrative. It is surprising to me that he capitalizes the "Van", but perhaps the "honorific" is frequently capitalized in Dutch (it isn't with people that I know). It is not surprising that he considers his name to be "Lustbader". It is surprising that he refers to the "Van" as his middle name instead of the "particle" or "honorific" that it almost certainly was at some point in history. My guess is that he just gave up and took a route that made his life easier.
Next you run into names that are naturally LN FN without commas, such as names in many Asian cultures. These names should never be reversed.
You also see names such as John Smith count Mumble, where the person's last name depends on the context. Sometimes it is Smith and sometimes it is Mumble.
My take: look for an instance where the person wrote their own name and use that. If you can't find such an instance, ask them. If you cannot ask them then go with the mix of what you think is right based on the person's culture and on the "average" of what you can find.
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