Did the Framers of the constitution intend that a corporation be Research Paper

Did the Framers of the constitution intend that a corporation be classified as a person for the purpose of being sued and suing - Research Paper Example 208). Persons, according to Roman law, do not have any kind of existence outside that of the legal sphere, and the law recognizes entities, regardless of whether or not they have a biological status. This view is called the â€Å"fiction theory† – this means that the personality of a corporation is a fiction, and that the corporation owes its very existence to the state (French, 1979, p. 208). Rivaling this theory in American jurisprudence is that of the â€Å"Legal Aggregate Theory of the Corporation† – this means that the corporate body is a shield or an umbrella for the individual persons that make up that corporation. In this theory, biological status is what matters, and has legal priority. In this theory, the corporation is synonymous with the board of directors and other leaders of the companies, while employees are generally ignored (French, 1979, p. 209). Another competing theory is that of the Germans, who regard corporations as having a de jarte personality, â€Å"which the law only declares to be a judicial fact† (French, 1979, p. 209). ... What is needed is a Reality Theory that identifies a de facto metaphysical person not just a sociological entity† (French, 1979, p. 210) While these are the popular theories about corporate personhood, the focus of this paper is whether or not the Framers meant for a corporation to be considered a person for the purposes of suing and being sued is a question that has a confused answer. The answer is confused because Supreme Court decisions have contradictory analysis on whether or not a corporation is considered to be a person under the Constitution as written. One case indicated that a corporation can sue in its own name, but that the corporation itself is not a citizen, but, rather, is composed of individual citizens, and that these individual citizens are what a court must look to when deciding if a court has jurisdiction over corporation lawsuits. Another case says, no, a corporation is an entity of its own, and the individual members of the corporation are not what matters – what matters is the corporation itself. The differences between these two cases is that the former was a case involving corporate lawsuits and the latter involved a corporation’s ability to make contracts. Then along came a case whose dicta established that a corporation is a person, but did not give any kind of reasoning behind why it believes this to be so. Nevertheless, this is considered to be a landmark case in that the case affirmatively established that a corporation is indeed a person. But, since the reasoning behind this is unclear, it is likewise unclear as to whether this court decided that the Framers intended this to be so. In other words, the Supreme Court cases that have dealt with the issue of corporate personhood,

Project Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Project Proposal - Essay Example To help strengthen the players in the banking sector in Nigeria and to ensure longevity and shareholders’ returns in the long run, the consolidation of banks was enforced by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The banks would either have to raise their capital base to N25 billion or face liquidation and quit the industry (Upaka, Akpata & Olasope, 2005). The purpose of the reforms was to reduce poverty and generate employment while leading to wealth creation. This was expected to lead to GDP growth over a period of time. Many of the small banks were plagued with low capital base and weak corporate governance. Consolidation of the banking system was to ensure a diversified, strong and reliable banking sector, ensure safety of depositor’s money, play active developmental roles in the country’s economy and make Nigerian banks competent and competitive players in the global financial system (Poyi, 2006). This would lead to diversification and emergence of specialized banks. The lending rates of the banks were very high and lending was concentrated in the short term due to lack of long term savings. The impact of the consolidation of the banks was felt in different sectors but there is not much literature available on the after-effects. The aim of this research is: Theory suggests that consolidation of banks could potentially increase the bank size which could in turn increase the bank returns through revenue and cost efficiency gains (Ajayi, 2005). It could also reduce industry risks through elimination of weak banks. This helps to eliminate the weak banks. The top ten banks account for nearly and account for more than 50% of the total assets. The small banking sector suffers from concentration of risks. They can provide fewer services and the costs for providing such services are high. Because of lack of effective competition, they are unable to exploit economies of scale. Consolidation became essential because there was over