Professor Philip Pettit: Corporate Persons, Commercial, Ecclesiastical, and Political So What? Lectures

Why should incorporated bodies count as legal persons? And what rights and responsibilities should they have? Should they enjoy rights that may trump the rights of individuals? Should they be able to compete with individuals for political influence? Should they be held responsible for the wrongdoing of their members or agents? And do such questions call for similar answers with corporate persons as different as companies, unions, churches, parties and states? The philosophy of incorporation, shaped by Roman jurists, a Papal bull and the South Sea Bubble, may help to shed some light on these issues.