Corporations, Persons and the Natural Law: A Response to Professor McLeod

Abstract

This short piece responds to an article by Professor McLeod and argues that, even under strong natural law assumptions about the natural rights of human beings to form associations, there is no reason to think that corporations, churches or other associations of individuals are real persons in any ontological or metaphysical sense. Anything we want to say about the rights and obligations of associations under the natural law is fully explainable in terms of the rights and obligations of the individual human beings who compose such associations.

Keywords: Corporations, legal persons, personhood, legal personhood, churches, natural law, associations, right to associate, right to association

JEL Classification: K20