Legal personality

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This article is about the legal philosophy behind the corporation. There is little information here about personalities in the law, like Lord Denning or A. P. Herbert, except to the extent they contributed to the jurisprudence of the law.

The legal form that one takes. One might be a natural person, or a corporation of some kind - to flesh and blood, a shoddy fiction, but in the eyes of the law a very real, very worthwhile contrivance, deserving of the full protection of the constitution.

Some, like Joel Bakan, argue that if corporations are persons, they are not very nice ones. Psychopaths, in fact.

Corporations - companies, if you like - come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. LLCs, PLCs, société anonymes, société d’investissement à capital variable, segregated portfolio companies, incorporated cell companies, and the many and splendoured varieties of espievie, common and exotic, that you can find out there - shall I go on?

then there are in-betweeners like partnerships, trusts, funds and segregated portfolios having only some, or even none, of the characteristics of legal personality.

Be assured, a world of fun awaits you. Come on in.

See also

• Corporate veil
• Signing authority
• Affiliate
• Branch
• Corporate personality of the year