Originally Posted by raymor

Since at least the mid 1800s, when you filed a law suit against someone, you could name a corporation as the person you were suing. It is of course much easier to sue Exxon than to identify which specific Exxon employee did wrong and sue that person, proving that particular employee is responsible.

To allow you name to a corporation as the person you're suing, the courts established the principle of "legal persons" or "artificial persons". The same legal principle was later used to start levying taxes on corporations and fined them for violating regulations.

Protestors in the US are now demanding that this principle of corporations as legal persons that can be sued and taxed be done away with. "End corporate personhood", they say. If the protestors get their way, it will be a major setback for consumer protection because corporations could no longer be sued or fined for any wrongdoing.

Personally I was a bit surprised to see this, as I didn't know there were many extreme pro-corporate people protesting. You don't suppose it's that they have no idea what their own signs mean, do you?