Realist Theory of Corporate Personality
- Theory
- Realist Theory of Corporate Personality
- Jurist
- Gierke
- Description
Associated with Otto von Gierke (and popularised in England by Maitland), this theory holds that a corporation or group is a real, living organism with a collective will and personality of its own, existing independently of the state. It rejects the Fiction Theory's claim that legal personality is an artificial creation of law — the group's personality is real and is merely recognised, not conferred, by the state.