the.com/corporation
a legal person that can sue, be sued, and never once feel guilt.
means a business entity chartered to exist separately from its owners, so the owners aren't personally liable for what it does.
from from latin corpus, meaning body — medieval guilds and church bodies were first granted this fictional single-body status, letting a group act as one immortal legal person.
immortal by designoutlives every founder, employee, and shareholder it ever had
1819 supreme courtdartmouth college case cemented corporate charters as protected contracts
personhood, sort ofcan own property and sign contracts, still can't go to prison
limited liabilityowners can lose their investment, never their house
for instance
east india company — 1600 london charter, ran its own army and conquered india
standard oil — 1911 breakup into 34 companies for monopolizing american oil
berkshire hathaway — started as a failing textile mill, now worth over 800 billion