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Legal personhood and the firm: avoiding anthropomorphism and equivocation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2015

DAVID GINDIS
DAVID GINDIS*
Affiliation:
Hertfordshire Business School, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK
*
*Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

From the legal point of view, ‘person’ is not co-extensive with ‘human being’. Nor is it synonymous with ‘rational being’ or ‘responsible subject’. Much of the confusion surrounding the issue of the firm's legal personality is due to the tendency to address the matter with only these, all too often conflated, definitions of personhood in mind. On the contrary, when the term ‘person’ is defined in line with its original meaning as ‘mask’ worn in the legal drama, it is easy to see that it is only the capacity to attract legal relations that defines the legal person. This definition, that avoids the undesirable emotional associations and equivocations that often plague the debate, is important for a legally grounded view of the firm.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 499 - 513
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2015 

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