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StaR_ca

21-10-2003, 12:31:AM

Corporate Personality

In law, corporate personality means "having the character of a corporation". The legal term for this is "person".

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The Century Dictionary

http://216.156.253.178/CENTURY/index.html

corporative, a. [As corporate + -ive; = F. corporatif.] Corporate; having the character of a corporation.

No citizen can be taxed except as allowed by this law, by the law regulating the provincial diets, and by the corporative guilds. - The Nation, Dec. 1, 1870, p. 364.
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A quick background on the word "person". The term "person" is of and originates in the Roman municipal law. The following quote found in Bouvier's Institutes gives an excellent description of its origin.

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"The signification in Our Jurisprudence .... The word ‘Person,’ in its primitive and natural sense, signifies the mask with which actors, who played dramatic pieces in Rome and Greece, covered their heads. These pieces were played in public places. and afterwards in Such vast amphitheaters that it was impossible for a man to make himself heard by all the spectators. Recourse was had to art; the head of each actor was enveloped with a mask, the figure of which represented the Part he was to play, and it was so contrived that the opening for the emission of his voice made the sounds clearer and more resounding, vox personabat, when the name persona was given to the instrument or mask which facilitated the resounding of his voice. The name persona was afterwards applied to the part itself which the actor had undertaken to play, because the face of the mask was adapted to the age and character of him who was considered as speaking, and sometimes it was his own portrait. It is in this last sense of personage, or of the part which an individual plays, that the word persona is employed in jurisprudence, in opposition to the word man, homo. When we speak of a person, we only consider the state of the man, the part he plays in society, abstractly, without considering the individual". 1

Bouvier’s Institutes, note 1.
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In short, in Roman law a person was a legal entity or party to a contract while in Roman theater a person described the mask worn by the actor to play a specific role. Neither usage identifies a person as a self-conscious being.

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"Following many writers on jurisprudence, a juristic person may be defined as an entity that is subject to a right. There are good etymological grounds for such an inclusive neutral definition. The Latin "PERSONA" originally referred to DRAMATIS PERSONAE, and in Roman Law the term was adapted to refer to anything that could act on either side of a legal dispute... In effect, in Roman legal tradition, PERSONS are creations, artifacts, of the law itself, i.e., of the legislature that enacts the law, and are not considered to have, or only have incidentally, existence of any kind outside of the legal sphere. The law, on the Roman interpretation, is systematically ignorant of the biological status of its subjects." - Peter French in THE CORPORATION AS A MORAL PERSON, 16 American Philosophical Quarterly 207, at 215 (1979).
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Facts to be considered.

In law, Canada and the United States as with all "nations" are corporate bodies, that is, they are corporations. The law of the land in these two countries as with England is the Roman municipal law as so adopted. Common law, statute law, legislative law or any other law, are subsets of the municipal law.

In law, the term "person" is applied to a man/woman to establish a rank within a corporate society with that rank determining the rights entitled and duties imposed. Again, the term "person" denotes a station, a function, a role or part that is played within the corporate society. This is reflected in the following three legal references, the first of the English "person", the latter of the American "person".

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"A person is such, not because he is human, but because rights and duties are ascribed to him. The person is the legal subject or
substance of which the rights and duties are attributes." - Pollack,
First Treatise on Jurisprudence, quoted in Black's Law Dictionary
(4th Rev. Ed., 1968), p. 1300.
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Institutes of American Law, Volume I, BOOK I, - OF PERSONS, by John Bouvier. 1854.

137. Men, women and children, who are called natural persons: but in another sense, a person is meant the part which a man plays in society. In law, man and person are not exactly synonymous terms. (a) Any human being is a man, (b) whether he be a member of society or not, whatever may be the rank he holds, or whatever may be his age, sex, etc. A person is a man considered according to the rank he holds in society, with all the rights to which the place he holds entitles him, and the duties which it imposes." --- Institutes of American Law, Volume I, BOOK I, - OF PERSONS, by John Bouvier. 1854."
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A LAW DICTIONARY

by John Bouvier

PERSON. This word is applied to men, women and children, who are called natural persons. In law, man and person are not exactly synonymous terms. Any human being is a man, whether he be a member of society or not, whatever may be the rank he holds, or whatever may be his age, sex, &c. A person is a man considered according to the rank he holds in society, with all the rights to which the place he holds entitles him, and the duties which it imposes. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 137.
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Lifting of the Corporate Veil

In law, a "person" is a fictitious legal entity, a thing (res) that has no existence outside of the legal sphere in that who or what the term "person" will be applied to is dependent on its definition within an act. This can easily be evidenced by looking at the old laws of coverture where a married woman did not have a separate legal existence (person), her person being civilly merged with that of the husband creating but one "person", he being that person. Slaves were not considered "persons" as the law treated them as mere "property". Each act has its own definition of "person". While the "government" may fall within the meaning of "person" within one act, the same cannot be said in a different act. Here are but a few examples of what I'm talking about here...

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Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England

"By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband: under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs every thing; and is therefore called ... a feme-covert...."
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A LAW DICTIONARY

ADAPTED TO THE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND OF THE SEVERAL STATES OF THE AMERICAN UNION

by John Bouvier

PARTIES, contracts. Those persons who engage themselves to do, or not to do the matters and things contained in an agreement.

9. - 1. A married woman has, in general, no power or capacity to contract during the coverture. Com. Dig. Baron & Feme, W; Pleader, 2 A 1. She has in legal contemplation no separate existence, her hushand and herself being in law but one person.
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Professor of Constitutional Law Dwight Duncan

Law Prof Compares Definition of 'Person' in Roe v. Wade With Older Ruling That a Negro Isn't a 'Person'

Tells Harvard Students that Supreme Court Rulings Make Partial Birth Abortion Ban Pointless

By Ed Oliver
February 13, 2003

Speaking to Harvard students recently on the topic of "Thirty Years of Roe vs. Wade," Professor of Constitutional Law Dwight Duncan said that a key question at the oral argument of the case was whether the fetus is a person. If it is, its Constitutional rights would be protected.

However, the court said a fetus was not a person within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, which says a person shall not be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.

There was no evidence, said the court, that the framers had unborn children in mind as Constitutional persons.

Prof. Duncan said the court opined that the only "persons" they could consider were women who were interested in getting abortions. It was their liberty that was at issue.

The Supreme Court used this reasoning at least once before, said Duncan, and that was in the 1857 Dred Scott decision that challenged the federal law prohibiting slavery in the territories.

In that case, the Court held that Dred Scott, a slave who sued for his freedom after entering free territory, was not a "person" in the meaning of the Fifth Amendment. Since he was not a person, he could not be heard.

The only party that could be heard was Mr. Sanford, his slave owner. Sanford's rights of private property in Mr. Scott were ruled to be protected by the Constitution. Both Congress and state governments were powerless to prohibit or limit slavery.

"It makes cases easy to resolve if you can decide that one side in a case is not a person," said Duncan.

<snip>

http://www.massnews.com/2003_Editions/2_Feb/021303_mn_roe_v_wade_v_dred_scott.shtml
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Bill Henderson Barrister & Solicitor 2010 - 88 Bloor St. E Toronto, Canada

"Most telling in relation to this attitude was the definition of "person" which was in the statute until 1951: "an individual other than an Indian". Indians could become persons by voluntarily enfranchising -- renouncing Indian status -- and, in many circumstances, were involuntarily enfranchised by the Act."

http://www.bloorstreet.com/200block/sindact.htm
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From the time of the Hudson's Bay Company, to the times of the "colonies", the "provinces", the "states", the "dominion", to the present "Canada" or "United States", they all have been/are the King/Queen's corporate ventures. Each and evry one of these were/are commercial "corporations" for the sole purpose of trade and commerce, each with their own "government", "laws" and "police force", each and every one an "artificial person" (aggregate), a subset of PERSON (roman law). In order for these creations of the law (aggregates) to obtain jurisdiction over a man, the word "person" is applied to the man in order to create a legal existence within its realm, that is, the persons of men (natural persons).

In law, persons and corporations are equivalent entities, that is, they are one of the same.

Lifting of the Corporate Veil is a reference to the denial of a man's corporate existence (person).

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Louisiana Revised Statute 15: (Criminal Procedure)
http://www.legis.state.la.us/tsrs/tsrs.asp?lawbody=RS&title=15&section=429

RS 15:429

§429. Corporate existence presumed unless affidavit of denial filed before trial

On trial of any criminal case it shall not be necessary to prove the incorporation of any corporation mentioned in the indictment, unless the defendant, before entering upon such trial, shall have filed his affidavit specifically denying the existence of such corporation.
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One must remember that a "person" is a limited liability. It is an "office" or "station" within a corporate society with its existence and functions completely mandated by the corporate body. Further, it is ruled and regulated by the Roman Municipal law, the Roman law of PERSONS. Your consent to this office is all that is needed to hold you liable.

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A DICTIONARY OF LAW (1893)

Municipal law. The rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme power in a state, commanding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong; also, the laws of a locality. 1 Bl. Com. 44; 15 Barb. 114. Defines the just and necessary limits of natural liberty. 1 Shars. Bl. Com. 127. A city ordinance is not a law in this sense.

Unwritten law. The municipal laws of England are: (1) the unwritten or common law, which includes customs, general and particular, and particular laws. General customs, or the common law properly so called, are founded on immemorial universal usage, whereof judicial decisions are the evidence. Particular laws are such as, by special custom, are adopted and used only in particular courts, and under the control of the common and statute laws; namely, the Roman civil and Canon [church] laws.

Written or statute law. The municipal laws of England are: (2) the written or statute law; being acts of legislative bodies, to only supply what is defective, or to amend only what is amiss, in the unwritten laws. 1 Bl. Com. 63-91, xxiv. See Statute.

Law of the land. (1) The general public law of a State, binding upon all the members of the community under all circumstances, and not partial or private laws affecting the rights of private individuals or classes of individuals. 61 Ill. 118; 5 Mich. 254; 50 Miss. 479; 48 N.H. 61; 20 Barb. 199. Also, due process of law.
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Blackstone's Commentaries

COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND.

BOOK THE FIRST.

OF THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS.

CHAPTER THE FIRST.

The RIGHTS OF PERSONS.

BOOK I.

Ch. 1.

NOW, as municipal law is a rule of civil conduct, commanding what is right, and prohibiting what is wrong; or, as Cicero , and after him our Bracton, has expressed it, fanctio jufta, jubens honefta et prohibens contraria; it follows, that the primary and principal objects of the law are RIGHTS, and WRONGS. In the prosecution therefore of these commentaries, I shall follow this very simple and obvious division; and shall in the first place consider the rights that are commanded, and secondly the wrongs that are forbidden by the laws of England.

RIGHTS are however liable to another subdivision; being either, first, those which concern, and are annexed to the persons of men, and are then called jura personarum or the rights of persons; or they are, secondly, such as a man may aquire over ecternal objects, or things unconnected with his person, which are stiled jura rerum or the rights of things.
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DUHAIME'S LAW DICTIONARY (canadian)

by Lloyd Duhaime, Barrister & Solicitor

Civil law

Law inspired by old Roman Law, the primary feature of which was that laws were written into a collection; codified, and not determined, as is common law, by judges. The principle of civil law is to provide all citizens with an accessible and written collection of the laws which apply to them and which judges must follow.
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Department of Justice Canada
http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/dept/pub/just/CSJ_page7.html

SOURCES OF CANADIAN LAW

"The tradition of civil law is quite different. It is based on Roman
law, which was consolidated by the Roman Emperor Justinian."
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Canadian Heritage
http://www.chin.gc.ca/English/Intellectual_Property/Illustrating_Options/glossary.html

13. Glossary

civil law: Derived from Roman law, civil law codifies legal principles
into one statute.
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A LAW DICTIONARY

ADAPTED TO THE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND OF THE SEVERAL STATES OF THE AMERICAN UNION

by John Bouvier

LAW, CIVIL. The term civil law is generally applied by way of eminence to the civil or municipal law of the Roman empire, without distinction as to the time when the principles of such law were established or modified. In another sense, the civil law is that collection of laws comprised in the institutes, the code,
and the digest of the emperor Justinian, and the novel constitutions of himself and some of his successors. Ersk. Pr. L. Scotl. B. 1, t. l, s. 9; 6 L. R. 494.

CIVIL LAW. The municipal code of the Romans is so called. It is a rule of action, adopted by mankind in a state of society. It denotes also the municipal law of the land. 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 11. See Law, civil.
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I hope this helps and gives you a better understanding.

If you have any further questions, by all means feel free to email me at StaRWebLaw@hotmail.com

StaR

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

FICTI'TIOUS, a. [L. fictifius, from fingo, to feign.]

1. Feigned; imaginary; not real.

The human persons are as fictitious as the airy ones.
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