Neither Persons nor Associations

Against Constitutional Rights for Corporations

Bibliographic Data

ID13046405
AuthorsDavid Ciepley (0000-0003-2620-0601, University of Denver, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume1
Issue2
Pages221-245
Publication date2013-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Law and Courts (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2164-6589 • E-ISSN: 2164-6570
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1086/670254
OpenAlexW3122900715
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited19

This article challenges the practice of extending constitutional rights to corporations. Drawing on recent corporate law scholarship, it shows that a corporation is neither an association of natural persons nor an independent person (or “real entity”) itself. The rights of natural persons thus do not pass to it. Instead, the corporation is an abstract, property-owning legal entity entirely distinct from its members that owes its very existence to a complex of legal privileges granted by government. Having been constituted by government, the corporation cannot properly assert constitutional rights against it. Corporations have only what rights they are granted by charter or statute, and these do not and cannot include constitutional rights

Business · Charter · Corporation · Government (linguistics · Law and economics · Natural (archaeology · Political science · Property rights · Scholarship · Sociology · Statute · Corporate Law and Human Rights · Law · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems · Legal principles and applications