ABSTRACT

The modern company is a creature of the state with corporate legal personality derived from the state through the process of incorporation. Once incorporation takes place, a legal person is created. Status as a legal person is different to the type of sociological personality that a group of individuals may develop organically that is recognised by the law; it also means corporate legal personality is more significant than just a shortcut mechanism to describe a collective of individuals or a set of characteristics. This article focuses on the source of corporate legal personality, applying an historical lens to show that the status of a company as a legal person or persona ficta is of long standing. Nineteenth century general incorporation statutes changed the process for acquiring corporate legal personality, but did not alter the underlying fact that corporate legal personality remained a concession of the state.

摘要

现代公司是具有法人资格的国家的生物，公司法人资格是通过公司注册成立而从国家获得的。合并后，将创建法人。法人身份与法律认可的一群人可以自然发展的社会人格类型不同；这也意味着公司法人资格比仅仅描述个人或一组特征的捷径机制更重要。本文着眼于公司法人资格的来源，运用历史的视角来证明公司作为法人或人物角色的地位具有悠久的历史。十九世纪的一般公司章程改变了获得公司法人资格的程序，但是并没有改变公司法人资格仍然是国家让步的基本事实。