The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Business law
Business organizations
Basic forms:
Sole proprietorship
Corporation
Partnership (General · Limited · LLP)
Cooperative
USA:
Business trust · LLC · LLLP Series LLC Delaware corporation Nevada corporation
Commonwealth/Ireland/UK:
Limited company (By shares · By guarantee) (Public · Proprietary)
Civil law countries:
AB · AG · ANS · A/S · A/S
K.K. · N.V. · OY · S.A. · GmbH
European Company Statute
Doctrines
Corporate governance
Limited liability · Ultra vires
Business judgment rule
De facto corporation and corporation by estoppel
Piercing the corporate veil
Related areas of law
Contract · Civil procedure

Corporate personhood is a term used to describe the legal fiction used within United States law that a corporation, under the concept of legal entity, has a limited subset of the same constitutional rights as a human being. The choice of the word 'person' in 'personhood' arises from the way Section One of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was worded and from earlier legal usage of the word 'person'. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... Image File history File links Scale_of_justice. ... Commercial law or business law is the body of law which governs business and commerce and is often considered to be a branch of civil law and deals both with issues of private law and public law. ... Business organizations is an area of law that covers the broad array of rules governing the formation and operation of different kinds of entities by which individuals can organize to do business. ... A sole proprietorship, or simply proprietorship, is a type of business entity which legally has no separate existence from its owner. ... Corporate redirects here. ... A partnership is a type of business entity in which partners share with each other the profits or losses of the business undertaking in which all have invested. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... A limited partnership is a form of partnership similar to a general partnership, except that in addition to one or more general partners (GPs), there are one or more limited partners (LPs). ... A limited liability partnership (LLP) is a form of business organization combining elements of partnerships and corporations. ... Co-op redirects here. ... A Massachusetts business trust or MBT is a legal trust set up for the purposes of business in the state of Massachusetts. ... A limited liability company (denoted by L.L.C. or LLC) is a legal form of business company in the United States offering limited liability to its owners. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A Series LLC is a special form of a Limited liability company that provides extra protection for personal assets comprised of multiple business entities. ... A Delaware corporation is a corporation chartered in the U.S. state of Delaware. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Nevada. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Limited liability company. ... A limited company by shares (limited or Ltd. ... A Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG) is a private company that does not have shareholders or share capital. ... The initials PLC after a UK or Irish company name indicate that it is a public limited company, a type of limited company whose shares may be offered for sale to the public. ... A Proprietary limited company or abbreviated as under Australian law is a business structure that has at least one shareholder with a limited number of shares. ... Civil law or continental law is the predominant system of law in the world, with its origins in Roman law, and sets out a comprehensive system of rules, usually codified, that are applied and interpreted by judges. ... Aktiebolag is the Swedish term for a corporation, i. ... The German term Aktiengesellschaft (IPA /aktsiəngəzεlʃaft/) (abbreviated AG) means a corporation which is limited by shares, , owned by shareholders. ... An ansvarlig selskap is a Norwegian personal responsibility company model, mainly used in small-to-medium businesses, which translates directly into Responsible Company. This reflects that the participants - or owners - are personally responsible for any outstanding debts the company would aquire. ... An Aktieselskab (abbreviated A/S) is the Danish name for a stock-based corporation. ... An aksjeselskap is the Norwegian term for a stock-based corporation. ... Business corporation ) is a type of corporation ) defined under Japanese law. ... The term Naamloze Vennootschap (usually abbreviated NV) is the Dutch terminology for a public limited liability company. ... Osakeyhtiö, directly translated as share corporation, is the Finnish equivalent of Limited company (Ltd or LLC) or Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH). ... S.A. is the abbreviation of Société Anonyme in French, Spółka Akcyjna in Polish, Sociedad Anónima in Spanish, Sociedade Anónima in Portuguese, or Naamloze Venootschap (N.V.) in Dutch, generally designating corporations in various countries. ... Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH or GesmbH) is a type of legal entity created in Germany in 1892. ... The Council Regulation on the Statute for a European Company of the European Union (adopted October 8, 2001; OJ L 294, 10 November 2001, pp. ... Corporate governance is the set of processes, customs, policies, laws and institutions affecting the way a corporation is directed, administered or controlled. ... Limited liability (LL) is liability that is limited to a partner or investors investment. ... Ultra vires is a Latin phrase that literally means beyond the power. ... The business judgment rule is a case law-derived concept in Corporations law whereby a court will refuse to review the actions of a corporations board of directors in managing the corporation unless there is some allegation of conduct that (1) violates (a) the directors duty of care, (b... De facto corporation and corporation by estoppel are both terms that are used by courts to describe circumstances in which is a business organization that has failed to become a de jure corporation (a corporation by law) will nonetheless be treated as a corporation, thereby shielding shareholders from liability. ... The corporate law concept piercing (Lifting) the corporate veil describes a legal decision where an officer, director, or shareholder of a corporation is held liable for the debts of the corporation despite the general principle that those persons are immune from suits in contract or tort that otherwise would only... A contract is a legally binding exchange of promises or agreement between parties. ... Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the process that courts will follow when hearing cases of a civil nature (a civil action, as opposed to a criminal action). ... In the common law, legal fictions are suppositions of fact taken to be true by the courts of law, but which are not necessarily true. ... Equality and the balancing of our interests under law is symbolised by a blindfold and weighing scales For other senses of this word, see Law (disambiguation). ... Corporate redirects here. ... A legal entity is a legal construct through which the law allows a group of natural persons to act as if it were a single composite individual for certain purposes. ... A constitutional right is a right granted by a governments constitution (on the national or sub-national level), and cannot be legally denied by that government. ... The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-Civil War amendments and it includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. ... The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ...

Corporations as legal entities have always been able to perform commercial activities, similar to a person acting as a sole proprietor, such as entering into a contract or owning property. Therefore corporations have always had some limited amount of 'personhood', which has allowed corporations to conduct business while shielding individual stockholders from personal financial risk (i.e., protecting personal assets which were not invested in the corporation). A legal entity is a legal construct through which the law allows a group of natural persons to act as if it were a single composite individual for certain purposes. ... Commerce is the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money between two or more entities. ... A sole proprietorship, or simply proprietorship, is a type of business entity which legally has no separate existence from its owner. ... A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or company (including a corporation), that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a joint stock company. ...

The stronger concept of corporate personhood is often traced to the 1886 U.S. Supreme Court case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company (118 U.S. 394), which provided some greater degree of protection from arbitrary state action. In their decision, the justices gave no explanation of how an amendment about the rights of former slaves should also apply to corporations. 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States... Santa Clara County v. ... Wiktionary has related dictionary definitions, such as: slave Slave may refer to: Slavery, where people are owned by others, and live to serve their owners without pay Slave (BDSM), a form of sexual and consenual submission Slave clock, in technology, a clock or timer that synchrnonizes to a master clock...

Also see creature of statute. A creature of statute is an entity such as a corporation created by statute. ...

History of corporate personhood

The history of corporate law in the United States can be directly tied to the ebb and flow of the debate first enunciated between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson over how centralized the government of the United States should be, how much power the member states should have over their own affairs, and how much say citizens and citizen organizations should have in public affairs. Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 — July 12, 1804) was an American politician, leading statesman, financier, intellectual, military officer, and the main founder and leader of the Federalist party. ... This article is becoming very long. ...

While both Hamilton and Jefferson participated in the creation of the more centralized United States out of the original confederation by the Federalist Party, they had very different ideals as to what the new creation should be. Hamilton believed in a strong central government, which he believed necessary for an industrialized nation, while Jefferson believed in a de-centralized, more agrarian nation (see Jeffersonian democracy). When Hamilton, as the first US Treasury Secretary created a national bank for the new country (see First Bank of the United States), Jefferson was much against the idea. Later, President Andrew Jackson did his best to emasculate the Second Bank of the United States (see Jacksonian democracy). A confederation is an association of sovereign states or communities, usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution. ... ... Agrarianism is a social and political philosophy. ... Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale in 1800. ... Banker redirects here; see wiktionary:banker for more meanings. ... Bank facade This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... This article is 45 kilobytes or more in size. ... The Second Bank of the United States was a bank chartered in 1816, five years after the expiration of the First Bank of the United States. ... Jacksonian democracy refers to the political philosophy of United States President Andrew Jackson and his followers in the new Democratic Party. ...

The Federal Constitution of 1788 did not mention corporations, thereby leaving the chartering of corporations to the states, since the Constitution did not explicitly say otherwise. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, corporations began to be chartered by the states. Corporations already existed in the new nation, but these were primarily educational corporations or institutions chartered by the British crown which continued to exist after the new nation was created from the Confederation. Due to experience as British Colonies and the accompanying corporate colonialism from British corporations chartered by the crown to do business in North America, new corporations were greeted with mixed feelings. Thomas Jefferson said, "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ... 1788 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... British colonization of the Americas began under the Kingdom of England in the late 16th century, before reaching its peak after the Acts of Union 1707, which established the Kingdom of Great Britain. ... Corporate colonialism relates to the involvement of corporate bodies in the practice of colonialism or imperialism. ... This article is becoming very long. ... The Ancient Greek term aristocracy meant a system of government with rule by the best. This is the first definition given in most dictionaries. ...

As with banks, so with other corporations, especially perhaps colleges, the degree of permissible interference was controversial from the earliest days of the nation. In 1790, John Marshall, a private attorney and a veteran of the Continental Army, represented the board of the College of William and Mary, in litigation that required him to defend that corporation's right to reorganize itself and in the process remove professors, The Rev John Bracken v. The Visitors of Wm & Mary College (7 Va. 573; 1790 Supreme Court of Virginia). The Supreme Court of Virginia ruled that the original crown charter provided the authority for the Visitors to make changes including the reorganization. 1790 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... John Marshall (September 24, 1755 – July 6, 1835) was an American statesman and jurist who more than anyone else shaped American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court a center of power. ... Illustration depicting uniforms and weapons used during the 1779 to 1783 period of the American Revolution by showing four soldiers standing in an informal group General George Washington, was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army on June 15, 1775. ... The College of William and Mary (also known as William and Mary or W&M) is a small, selective, coeducational public university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. ... The Supreme Court of Virginia is one of the oldest continuous judicial bodies in the United States. ...

Thomas Jefferson claimed in his autobiography that he had a hand in the reorganization when he was elected a Visitor of William and Mary after being appointed the Governor of the Commonwealth in June of 1779. His main reason for the reorganization was to move the college from a curriculum rooted in theology to a curriculum rooted in science, fine arts, and languages. In education, a curriculum (plural curricula) is the set of courses and their contents offered by an institution such as a school or university. ... Theology (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογια, logia, words, sayings, or discourse) is reasoned discourse concerning religion, spirituality and gods. ... Part of a scientific laboratory at the University of Cologne. ... Fine art is a term used to refer to fields traditionally considered to be artistic. ...

In 1818, the United States Supreme Court heard arguments in another such matter, Dartmouth College v. Woodward 17 U.S. 518 1819. Daniel Webster was the advocate for Dartmouth. He concluded his argument in the following emotional fashion, directly addressed to that same John Marshall, now chief justice. Webster equated the property rights of the donors and their trustees with the cause of literature and science, in short, with civilization itself. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the judicial branch of the United States federal government. ... Trustees of Dartmouth College vs. ... 1819 common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 25, 1852) was a prominent American statesman during the nations antebellum, or Pre-Civil War, era. ... Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ... Part of a scientific laboratory at the University of Cologne. ...

"Sir, you may destroy this little institution; it is weak; it is in your hands! I know it is one of the lesser lights in the literary horizon of our country. You may put it out. But if you do, you must carry through your work! You must extinguish, one after another, all those great lights of science which, for more than a century, have thrown their radiance over our land. It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet, there are those who love it."

At this point, the Chief Justice is said to have become teary. The following year, he read from the bench the court's decision in that matter.

The key paragraph in the decision is as follows: "The opinion of the Court, after mature deliberation, is that this corporate charter is a contract, the obligation of which cannot be impaired without violating the Constitution of the United States. This opinion appears to us to be equally supported by reason, and by the former decisions of this Court." It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ... A contract is a legally binding exchange of promises or agreement between parties. ...

A public outcry ensued. State courts and legislatures, supported by many of their constituents, declared that state governments had an absolute right to amend or repeal a corporate charter. (Richard L Grossman and Frank T. Adams, Taking Care of Business, Citizenship and the Charter of Incorporation (Cambridge: Charter, Ink., 1993), p. 11-12). Richard Grossman is co-director of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD). ...

Seven years after the Dartmouth College opinion, the Supreme Court decided Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts v. Town of Pawlet, (1823) in which an English corporation dedicated to missionary work, with land in the U.S., sought to protect its rights to that land under colonial-era grants against an effort by the state of Vermont to revoke the grants. Justice Joseph Story, writing for the court, explicitly extended the same protections to corporation-owned property as it would have to property owned by natural persons. 1823 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Official language(s) None[1] Capital Montpelier Largest city Burlington Area  Ranked 45th  - Total 9,620 sq mi (24,923 km²)  - Width 80 miles (130 km)  - Length 160 miles (260 km)  - % water 3. ... American jurist Joseph Story Joseph Story (September 18, 1779 - September 10, 1845), American jurist, was born at Marblehead, Massachusetts. ...

The notion of corporate personhood, then, has roots in the early history of the republic. Still, as the 19th century matured, manufacturing in the US, became more complex as the British Industrial Revolution generated new inventions and business processes which US industry copied. US industry was largely protected by tariffs from British and other foreign competition. The favored form for large businesses became the corporation because the corporation provided a mechanism to raise the large amounts of investment capital large business required especially for capital intensive yet risky projects such as railroads. And as these corporations came to dominate business life, they also began to dominate America's politicians, lawyers, courts and culture. A Watt steam engine in Madrid. ... A tariff is a tax on foreign goods. ... Politics is the process by which groups make decisions. ... English barrister 16th century painting of a civil law notary, by Flemish painter Quentin Massys. ...

The Civil War accelerated the growth of manufacturing and the power of the men who owned the large corporations. The systematic bribing of Congressmen was instituted by Mark Hanna, sugar trust magnate Henry O. Havemeyer, and Senator Nelson Aldrich and their associates. (Jonathan Shepard Fast and Luzviminda Bartolome Francisco, Conspiracy For Empire, Big Business, Corruption and the Politics of Imperialism in America, 1876-1907 (Quezon City, Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1985), p. 92-97). The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 until 1865 between the northern states, popularly referred to as the U.S., the Union, the North, or the Yankees; and the seceding southern states, commonly referred to as the Confederate States of America, the CSA, the Confederacy... Congress in Joint Session. ... Mark Hanna Mark A. Hanna (September 24, 1837–February 15, 1904), born Marcus Alonzo Hanna, was an industrialist and Republican politician from Ohio. ... Henry Osborne Havemeyer (1847 - 1907) was an American entrepreneur who founded the American Sugar Refining Company. ... Seal of the U.S. Senate The Senate is one of the two chambers of the bicameral United States Congress, the other being the House of Representatives. ... Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich (November 6, 1841 - April 16, 1915) was an American politician. ...

Beginning in the 1870s, corporate lawyers became bolder about using the Webster/Marshall theory of corporations as persons, arguing that as such they were entitled to some of the legal protections against arbitrary state action accorded also to natural persons. In jurisprudence, a natural person is a human being perceptible through the senses and subject to physical laws, as opposed to an artificial person, i. ...

It should be understood that the term 'artificial person' was in long use, prior to the Dartmouth College decision, and was in principle distinct from any contention that corporations have the rights of natural persons. 'Artificial person' was used because there were certain resemblances, in law, between a natural person and corporations. Both could be parties in a lawsuit; both could be taxed; both could be constrained by law. In fact the corporations had been called artificial persons by courts in England as early as the 16th century because lawyers for the corporations had asserted they could not be convicted under the English laws of the time because the laws were worded "No person shall..." A legal entity is a legal construct through which the law allows a group of natural persons to act as if it were a single composite individual for certain purposes. ... In jurisprudence, a natural person is a human being perceptible through the senses and subject to physical laws, as opposed to an artificial person, i. ... In jurisprudence, a natural person is a human being perceptible through the senses and subject to physical laws, as opposed to an artificial person, i. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ...

In the late 1800s, railroads were among the most politically powerful corporations in the country as the corporate officers had to work with federal and state legislatures in order to obtain land grants for rights of way and the legislatures in turn depended on the railroads to provide the low cost transportation needed to open up new territory. Railroads provided a means for most of the nation's farmers to transport agricultural products such as grain and livestock from rural areas into cities such as Chicago. Manufacturing corporations needed coal, iron ore, finished iron, or any other materials transported and consumer goods business such as Sears, Roebuck and Company used railroads to deliver goods to mail order catalog customers. Farmer spreading grasshopper bait in his alfalfa field. ... The word grain has several meanings, most being descriptive of a small piece or particle. ... Sheep are commonly bred as livestock. ... This article is about Illinois largest city. ... Coal Coal (IPA: ) is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground by underground mining or open-pit mining (surface mining). ... General Name, Symbol, Number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 8, 4, d Appearance lustrous metallic with a grayish tinge Atomic mass 55. ... Iron ore (Banded iron formation) Manganese ore Lead ore Gold ore An ore is a volume of rock containing components or minerals in a mode of occurrence which renders it valuable for mining. ... This article refers to Sears as it existed prior to its merger with Kmart. ... Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. ...

As railroads increased their size becoming business organizations that operated across multiple states, a number of conflicts between various states and the railroads began to surface. In four cases that reached the Supreme Court (94 U.S. 155, 94 U.S. 164, 94 U.S. 179, 94 U.S. 180 (1877)), railroads tried to argue that the 14th Amendment prevented states from regulating the maximum rates they could charge. These cases did not rely on just an interpretation of the 14th Amendment as most also tied in the Interstate Commerce clause as well. In each case the Court refused to render an opinion as to whether the 14th Amendment applied to corporations instead couching their decision on the Interstate Commerce clause.

Similarly, in 1877, in Munn v. Illinois (94 U.S. 113 (1876)), the Supreme Court decided that the 14th Amendment did not prevent the State of Illinois from regulating charges for use of a business's grain elevators, ignoring the question of whether Munn & Scott was a person. Munn v. ... 1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Official language(s) English Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Area  Ranked 25th  - Total 57,918 sq mi (149,998 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 390 miles (629 km)  - % water 4. ...

In Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company (118 U.S. 394 (1886)), at the lower court levels the question of whether corporations were persons had been argued, and these arguments were submitted in writing to the Court. However, before oral argument took place, Chief Justice Waite announced: "The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does." Santa Clara County v. ... Oral arguments are verbal presentations to a judge or appellate court by a lawyer (or the party when representing themselves) of the legal reasons why they should prevail. ...

Was the 14th Amendment about corporations? One of the 1886 judges, Samuel F. Miller, had not thought so in 1872, only six years after the Amendment had become law, when the court was "called upon for the first time to give construction to these articles." In the Slaughterhouse Cases (83 U.S. 36 (1872)), Miller delivered the majority opinion and discussed the Thirteenth Amendment and the Fifteenth Amendment as well as the Fourteenth as follows: Samuel Freeman Miller (April 5, 1816 - October 13, 1890), was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, 1862-1890. ... Holding The 14th Amendment does not protect the privileges and immunities of state citizenship, only national citizenship. ... 1872 (MDCCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Amendment XIII Amendment XIII (the Thirteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution officially abolished, and continues to prohibit, slavery, and, with limited exceptions, prohibits involuntary servitude. ... 1870 celebration of the 15th amendment as a guarantee of African American rights Contemporary drawing depicting the first vote by African Americans Amendment XV (the Fifteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution provides that governments in the United States may not prevent a citizen from voting because of his race...

The most cursory glance at these articles discloses a unity of purpose, when taken in connection with the history of the times, which cannot fail to have an important bearing on any question of doubt concerning their true meaning. Nor can such doubts, when any reasonably exist, be safely and rationally solved without a reference to that history, for in it is found the occasion and the necessity for recurring again to the great source of power in this country, the people of the States, for additional guarantees of human rights, additional powers to the Federal government; additional restraints upon those of the States. Fortunately, that history is fresh within the memory of us all, and its leading features, as they bear upon the matter before us, free from doubt.

...

We repeat, then, in the light of this recapitulation of events, almost too recent to be called history, but which are familiar to us all, and on the most casual examination of the language of these amendments, no one can fail to be impressed with the one pervading purpose found in them all, lying at the foundation of each, and without which none of them would have been even suggested; we mean the freedom of the slave race, the security and firm establishment of that freedom, and the protection of the newly made freeman and citizen from the oppressions of those who had formerly exercised unlimited dominion over him.

(Graham, Howard Jay, Everyman's Constitution, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1968. See also Graham, Howard Jay, "The Conspiracy Theory of the Fourteenth Amendment," The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 47: 341, 1938) For other uses, see Conspiracy theory (disambiguation). ...

It has been argued that the men who wrote the 14th Amendment specifically meant for the word person to be a loophole which you could drive a giant corporation through. Apparently in one of the railroad cases an attorney who had been on the committee that drafted the amendment waved a paper before the court claiming that it documented such; but the paper was not entered as evidence, nor apparently was it shown to anyone, nor was it saved. However, careful research has shown that, John A. Bingham the member of Congress who is known to have been chiefly responsible for the phraseology of Section One when it was drafted by the Joint Committee in 1866, had, during the previous decade and as early as 1856-1859, employed not one but all three of the same clauses and concepts he later used in Section One. More important still, Bingham employed these guarantees specifically and in a context which suggested that free Negroes and mulattoes rather than corporations and business enterprise unquestionably were the persons' to which he then referred.

Later, in Northwestern Nat Life Ins. Co. v. Riggs (203 U.S. 243 (1906)), having accepted that corporations are a type of people, the court still ruled that the 14th Amendment was not a bar to many state laws that effectively limited a corporation's right to contract business as it pleases. Dame Kelly Holmes is half Black (Jamaican) and half White (English). ... Northwestern National Life Insurance Co. ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

Two Supreme Court judges, Hugo Black and William O. Douglas, later rendered opinions attacking the doctrine of corporate personhood. Quoted here is the conclusion of Justice Black's opinion: Hugo Black Hugo LaFayette Black (February 27, 1886 – September 25, 1971) was a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1937 - 1971). ... William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898 – January 19, 1980) was a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice. ...

If the people of this nation wish to deprive the states of their sovereign rights to determine what is a fair and just tax upon corporations doing a purely local business within their own state boundaries, there is a way provided by the Constitution to accomplish this purpose. That way does not lie along the course of judicial amendment to that fundamental charter. An amendment having that purpose could be submitted by Congress as provided by the Constitution. I do not believe that the Fourteenth Amendment had that purpose, nor that the people believed it had that purpose, nor that it should be construed as having that purpose.

(Hugo Black, dissenting, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company v. Johnson (303 U.S. 77, 1938).) Hugo Black Hugo LaFayette Black (February 27, 1886 – September 25, 1971) was a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1937 - 1971). ... Connecticut General Life Insurance Company v. ...

Justice Black was not alone in his questioning of the legitimacy of corporate personhood. Justice Douglas, dissenting in Wheeling Steel Corp. v. Glander (337 U.S. 562, 1949), gave an opinion similar to, but shorter than, the one quoted above, to which Justice Black concurred. Wheeling Steel Corp. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ...

Twenty-first century developments

The understanding of corporate personhood in the United States may be changing as a result of developments in bankruptcy law and mass tort litigation. Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay their creditors. ... In law, a class action is an equitable procedural device used in litigation for determining the rights of and remedies, if any, for large numbers of people whose cases involve common questions of law and fact. ...

Near the end of the 20th century, several major corporations entered chapter 11 (i.e., judicial protection from creditors, on the basis of their liability for harm done or allegedly done to actual or potential plaintiffs by asbestos). Owens-Corning, an insulation manufacturer, was perhaps the most high-profile of these. Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code governs the process of reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. ... A creditor is a party (e. ... Fibrous asbestos on muscovite Asbestos Asbestos Asbestos (a misapplication of Latin: asbestos quicklime from Greek : a, not and sbestos, extinguishable) describes any of a group of minerals that can be fibrous, many of which are metamorphic and are hydrous magnesium silicates. ...

Owens-Corning was, formally speaking, not one corporation but several, and it has maintained in the bankruptcy proceedings that the several corporations must be treated separately in any court-directed re-organization.

In 2004, a federal district court ordered the substantive consolidation of the different corporations that operate under the Owens-Cornings name for purposes of re-organization. This is still a hotly disputed matter, and that order was overturned on appeal, but it may prove a landmark in the willingness of courts to pierce the corporate veil. 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The corporate law concept piercing (Lifting) the corporate veil describes a legal decision where an officer, director, or shareholder of a corporation is held liable for the debts of the corporation despite the general principle that those persons are immune from suits in contract or tort that otherwise would only...

See also

• U.S. corporation case law
• Corporate behaviour
• Corporate governance
• History of central banking in the United States
• History of rail transport
• Industrial Revolution

The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... Corporate governance is the set of processes, customs, policies, laws and institutions affecting the way a corporation is directed, administered or controlled. ... This article is about the history of central banking in the United States, from the 1790s to the present. ... Horse drawn railway coach, late 18th century Main article: Rail transport The history of rail transport dates back nearly 500 years, and includes systems with man or horse power and rails of wood or stone. ... A Watt steam engine in Madrid. ...

External links

• ReclaimDemocracy.org has a large library of resources on the topic and covers campaigns to revoke corporate personhood.
• Program on Corporations, Law, & Democracy
• Ohio Committee on Corporations, Law, & Democracy
• Corpwatch
• Corporate Watch (UK)
• Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
• Gangs of America by Ted Nace -- A free book on historical and legal bases of Corporations
• The Corporation -- A film about today's dominant institution, Canada 2004
• Proposed constitutional amendment to revoke corporate personhood
• --Thoughts on transforming perception and definition of money to restore people's rights and democracy.

Notable U.S. Supreme Court cases

• findlaw for Dartmouth College v. Woodward
• findlaw for "The Slaughterhouse Cases"
• findlaw for Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad
• findlaw for Chicago, B&Q Railroad v. State of Iowa (94 U.S. 155)
• findlaw for Peik v. Chicago & N. W. Railroad (94 U.S. 164)
• findlaw for Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul Railroad v. Ackley (94 U.S. 179)
• findlaw for Wheeling Steel Corp. v. Glander (337 U.S. 562)