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True or False: Corporations are GOVERNMENT Creations

Body Corporate
n.

Law: A LEGAL entity (such as an association, company, person, government, government agency, or institution) identified by a particular name. Also called corporation, corporate body or corporate entity.


Legal Fiction
n.

A legal fiction is a fact assumed or created by courts[1] which is then used in order to apply a legal rule. Typically, a legal fiction allows the court to ignore a fact that would prevent it from exercising its jurisdiction, by simply assuming that the fact is different. This is the case with the Bill of Middlesex where the Court of King's Bench could only exercise jurisdiction over cases which took place in the historic English county of Middlesex. To allow the Court, which was the central court of the land, to take jurisdiction over other cases, parties began to plead that, along with the other facts, there had also been a trespass which occurred in Middlesex. This allowed the King's Bench to rule on the whole of the case.

Legal fictions are different from Legal Presumptions which assume a certain state of facts until the opposite is proved, such as the presumption of legitimacy. They are different from hypothetical examples, such as the 'reasonable person' which serve as tools for the court to express its reasoning. They are also different from legal principles which create a legal state of affairs that is different from the underlying facts, such as corporate personality although these are sometimes wrongly called legal fictions.

The term "legal fiction" is not usually used in a pejorative way, and has been likened to scaffolding around a building under construction.[2]

Posted - October 2, 2016

Responses


  • 2758
    True. Unquestionably so.  Publicly-traded corporations are CORRUPTIONS of capitalism/free enterprise, and it is precisely for that reason that THIS libertarian is opposed to their creation let alone their existence.
      October 2, 2016 5:07 PM MDT
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  • IKR.

    Without these "laws" we wouldn't have a handful of corporations that control everything. We would only have one "non-corporation" that would control everything.
      October 2, 2016 5:41 PM MDT
    1

  • 2758
    Not exactly. Without corporate abominations acting under the legally fictitious guise of 'personhood,' there'd be no need for laws to protect them.  They simply would not exist.

    Otherwise you have a point. Government is a corporation unto itself.  It is the only constitutionally-recognized variant thereof, and the terms of its charter are quite specific/limited.

      October 2, 2016 5:48 PM MDT
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  • 1002
    That is correct as the "United States" (read: federal govt.) is itself a corporation; Title 28, USC § 3002, Ch. 176.A (15) (A). Check out (10) while there, very interesting indeed.

    It's all paper-fiction of course, but still the exclusive creation of government. Certainly wasn't consensual either, pfft, what a lie that was.

      October 2, 2016 7:14 PM MDT
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  • 2758
    Spot on (as usual)!
      October 3, 2016 1:42 AM MDT
    0

  • You're absolutely correct. Corporations hold much to much power in the US.  They enjoy an enhanced version of freedom and liberty that most of us peons are excluded from. 

    The reality is that coporations are nothing more than a tyranical hierarchy.  I've always heard that tyranny is the enemy of free enterprise. 
    As you pointed out above, the goverment is basically a corporation.

    It's ironic, troublesome, and laughable that one corporation assumes the role of overseeing the actuality of all other corporations.  Metaphorically, the relationship between government and corporation is comparative to the relationship between God and humanity.   That's how I see it.  
      October 2, 2016 8:23 PM MDT
    1

  • 2758
    1) Correct.  They also have none of the liabilities which a true individual would have under the same circumstances.

    2) Correct again. It's precisely BECAUSE I'm a capitalist that I am opposed to the very existence of corporations.

    3) In the sense that as God created humanity government created corporations, I suppose so. I prefer another analogy, though.  The Gene Roddenberry Analogy.  The one where the Borg collective is very similar in function to modern-day corporations.
      October 3, 2016 1:47 AM MDT
    1

  • 17590
    False
      October 2, 2016 10:47 PM MDT
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  • 2758
    Incorrect:

    Government charters corporations
    Government assigns 'personhood' status to corporations
    Government protects the rights of corporations over and above the rights of individuals

    For the first 100 years of our history (i.e., prior to Santa Clara V. Southern Pacific), corporations as we know them today were flatly illegal.
      October 3, 2016 1:50 AM MDT
    0