Susan Watson (University of Auckland Faculty of Law) has posted The Corporate Legal Person (Journal of Corporate Law Studies, January 2018) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
The argument set out in this article is that the modern company is a creature of the state, with corporate legal personality derived from the state through the process of incorporation. Once incorporation takes place a legal person is created. Status as a legal person is different to the type of sociological personality that a group of individuals may develop organically that is recognised by the law. Also status as a legal person means corporate legal personality is more significant than just a shortcut mechanism to describe a collective of individuals or a set of characteristics. It is argued that the modern company is a nexus for contracts; a legal entity that is a legal person that derives its legal personality from the state. Far from being a “convenient heuristic formula”, corporate legal personality attaching to the nexus or entity separate from shareholders and all other corporate participants is the defining characteristic of the modern company.