News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says. Parent comment

Re:Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says by EnergyAmy on Thursday May 28, 2026 @03:55PM (#48314508)
It's a dangerous game to anthropomorphize legal fictions by using terms like attributing "will" to them. Likewise by sneaking in priors with the term "people". It's best to stick to calling them legal fiction.

It might help to picture them as literally a piece of paper. It would be pretty silly to say that piece of paper has a "will of its own" or "rights" or calling it a "person", wouldn't it?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Corporations can vote in some Delaware elections, judge says by bit-anarchist on Thursday May 28, 2026 @06:38PM (#48316528)
The usage of the term "will" isn't unwarranted nor simply an anthropomorphization for the sake of it. Long story short, it's the recognition that both individuals and corps (through their agents, not to be confused by their members) can enter into conflict. A legal conflict can only emerge between entities that have a "will". This isn't something I ascribed onto them, this is something I observed in them given the definitions I'm working with. I suspect our conflict lies in them.

The anthropomorphization simply emerges out of a shared property in this context. Keep in mind I haven't said anything about biology.

[ Parent | on HN ]