MORALITY
PERSONALITY OF CORPORATIONS
(This post
summarises one way of understanding how a kind of moral personality comes to be
attributed to corporations. There are of course many other aspects of corporate
or business ethics more generally.)
You
are a company-formation agent. You fill out some paper or online forms; you and
your assistant agree to subscribe £1 of share capital each; you choose a name
(eg “2015/xx ltd); you adopt some generalised off the peg constitution; you pay
a fee and file at the appropriate companies registry.
Congratulations.
You have created life – well, not exactly: you have created a new “person” so
far as the law is concerned. Never mind that your new company is now filed in
your computer or cabinet and lies dormant in its slim line of code or slim
folder of papers. It is a legal person.
