See also
Look up corporation sole in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
A corporation sole is a legal entity consisting of a single ("sole") incorporated office, occupied by a single ("sole") natural person. [1] [2] This structure allows corporations (often religious corporations or Commonwealth governments) to pass without interruption from one officeholder to the next, giving positions legal continuity with subsequent officeholders having identical powers and possessions to their predecessors. A corporation sole is one of two types of corporation, the other being a corporation aggregate. [3]
Most corporations sole are church-related [1] (for example, the archbishopric of Canterbury),[ citation needed ] although some political offices of the United Kingdom (e.g., many of the secretaries of state), Canada, and the United States are corporations sole. [4]
The concept of corporation sole originated as a means for orderly transfer of ecclesiastical property, serving to keep the title within the denomination or religious society. In order to keep the religious property from being treated as the estate of the vicar of the church, the property was titled to the office of the corporation sole. In the case of the Catholic Church, ecclesiastical property is usually titled to the diocesan bishop, who serves in the office of the corporation sole.
The Catholic Church continues to use corporations sole in holding titles of property: as recently as 2002, it split a diocese in the US state of California into many smaller corporations sole and with each parish priest becoming his own corporation sole, thus limiting the diocese's liability for any sexual abuse or other wrongful activity in which the priest might engage. This is, however, not the case everywhere, and legal application varies. For instance, other U.S. jurisdictions have used corporations at multiple levels. [5] [6] In the jurisdictions of England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, a Catholic bishop is not a corporation sole, and real property is held by way of land trusts, a tradition dating back to the suppression of Catholicism by Henry VIII during the English Reformation and the Penal Laws of Ireland.[ citation needed ]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses the corporation sole form for its president, which is legally listed as "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". [7]
Iglesia ni Cristo was registered as corporation sole with the Insular Government of the Philippines in 1914 [8] and with the People's Republic of China in 2014.[ citation needed ]
The corporation sole form can serve the needs of a religious organization by reducing its complexity to that of a single office and its holder, thereby eliminating the need for by-laws and a board of directors.[ citation needed ][ original research? ]
Within most constitutional monarchies, notably the Commonwealth realms, the Crown is a nonstatutory corporation sole. [9] [10] [11] [12] Although conceptually speaking, the office and officeholder retain dual capacities in that they may act both in a corporate capacity (as monarch) and in an individual capacity (as a private person), they are inseparably fused in law; there is no legal distinction between the office and the individual person who holds it. [13] The Crown (state) legally acts as a person when it enters into contracts and possesses property. [14] As a person, the monarch (officeholder) may hold properties privately, distinct from property he or she possesses corporately, and may act as monarch separate from their personal acts. For example, Charles III as a natural person holds several separate offices, such as king of the United Kingdom, king of Canada, king of Australia, and the supreme governor of the Church of England, all of which are distinct corporations sole, even as he acts as a natural person in his private capacities separate and apart from his role filling these various offices (corporations). Likewise, the office of prime minister has use of certain properties and privileges, such as an official residence and decision-making powers, that remain with the office once the officeholder leaves, even as the officeholder may own property in a private capacity.[ citation needed ]
The sovereign's status as a corporation sole ensures that all references to the king, the queen, His Majesty, Her Majesty, and the Crown are synonymous, referring to exactly the same legal personality over time. [15] [16] While natural persons who serve as sovereign pass on, the sovereign never legally dies; [17] thus the corporate nature of the office of sovereign ensures that the authority of the state continues uninterrupted. [18] In other words, the sovereign is made a corporation sole to prevent the possibility of disruption or interregnum, thereby preserving the stability of the Crown (state). For this reason, at the moment of the demise of the sovereign, a successor is immediately and automatically in place. [10] [19]
As a corporation sole, the legal person of the sovereign is the personification of the state and consequently acts as a guarantor of the rule of law and the fount of all executive authority behind the state's institutions. [20] As Australia and Canada have federal systems of government, the sovereign in these cases also possesses capacities as distinct corporation sole in right of each of the Australian states and Canadian provinces; for example, as His Majesty the King of Australia in Right of Queensland and His Majesty the King of Canada in Right of Alberta.[ citation needed ]
Every state of the United States recognizes corporations sole under common law, and about a third of the states have specific statutes that stipulate the conditions under which that state recognizes the corporations sole that are filed with that state for acquiring, holding, and disposing of title for church and religious society property. [21] [22] Almost any religious society or church can qualify for filing as a corporation sole in these states. There can be no legal limitation to specific denominations, therefore a Buddhist temple or Jewish Community Center would qualify as quickly as a Christian church. Some states also recognize corporations sole for various other non-profit purposes including performing arts groups, scientific research groups, educational institutions, and cemetery societies.[ citation needed ]
The monarchy of Canada is Canada's form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is one of the key components of Canadian sovereignty and sits at the core of Canada's constitutional federal structure and Westminster-style parliamentary democracy. The monarchy is the foundation of the executive (King-in-Council), legislative (King-in-Parliament), and judicial (King-on-the-Bench) branches of both federal and provincial jurisdictions. The current monarch is King Charles III, who has reigned since 8 September 2022.
Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in others that is a separate step. Under a modern constitutional monarchy, royal assent is considered little more than a formality. Even in nations such as the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein and Monaco which still, in theory, permit their monarch to withhold assent to laws, the monarch almost never does so, except in a dire political emergency or on advice of government. While the power to veto by withholding royal assent was once exercised often by European monarchs, such an occurrence has been very rare since the eighteenth century.
In law, a legal person is any person or legal entity that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, own property, and so on. The reason for the term "legal person" is that some legal persons are not people: companies and corporations are persons legally speaking, but they are not people in a literal sense.
The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is the minister of justice for the whole United Kingdom and the highest-ranking Great Officer of State in Scotland and England, nominally outranking the prime minister. The lord chancellor is appointed and dismissed by the sovereign on the advice of the prime minister. Prior to the union of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain, there were separate lord chancellors for the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland. Likewise, the Lordship of Ireland and its successor states maintained the office of lord chancellor of Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, whereupon the office was abolished.
The Crown broadly represents the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions. The term can be used to refer to the office of the monarch or the monarchy as institutions; to the rule of law; or to the functions of executive, legislative, and judicial governance and the civil service.
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another. A trustee can also be a person who is allowed to do certain tasks but not able to gain income. Although in the strictest sense of the term a trustee is the holder of property on behalf of a beneficiary, the more expansive sense encompasses persons who serve, for example, on the board of trustees of an institution that operates for a charity, for the benefit of the general public, or a person in the local government.
The law officers are the senior legal advisors to His Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom and devolved governments of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. They are variously referred to as the Attorney General, Solicitor General, Lord Advocate, or Advocate General depending on seniority and geography – though other terms are also in use, such as the Counsel General for Wales. Law officers in these roles are distinguished by being political appointees, while also being bound by the duties of independence, justice and confidentiality among the other typical professional commitments of lawyers. These roles do not have any direct oversight of prosecutions nor do they directly lead or influence criminal investigations. This is a distinguishing factor between law officers and the state attorneys general of the United States or US Attorney General.
The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's private estate. The Crown Estate in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland is managed by the Crown Estate Commissioners. In Scotland, the Crown Estate is managed by Crown Estate Scotland, since the Scottish estate was devolved in 2017.
The Regency Acts are Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed at various times, to provide a regent in the event of the reigning monarch being incapacitated or a minor. Prior to 1937, Regency Acts were passed only when necessary to deal with a specific situation. In 1937, the Regency Act 1937 made general provision for a regent, and established the office of Counsellor of State, a number of whom would act on the monarch's behalf when the monarch was temporarily absent from the realm or experiencing an illness that did not amount to legal incapacity. This Act, as modified by the Regency Acts of 1943 and 1953, forms the main law relating to regency in the United Kingdom today.
A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being.
A high sheriff is a ceremonial officer for each shrieval county of England and Wales and Northern Ireland or the chief sheriff of a number of paid sheriffs in U.S. states who outranks and commands the others in their court-related functions. In Canada, the High Sheriff provides administrative services to the supreme and provincial courts.
The Ecclesiastical Commissioners were, in England and Wales, a body corporate, whose full title was Ecclesiastical and Church Estates Commissioners for England. The commissioners were authorised to determine the distribution of revenues of the Church of England, and they made extensive changes in how revenues were distributed. The modern successor body thereof are the Church Commissioners.
The public trustee is an office established pursuant to national statute, to act as a trustee, usually when a sum is required to be deposited as security by legislation, if courts remove another trustee, or for estates if either no executor is named by will or the testator elects to name the public trustee.
The monarchy of Antigua and Barbuda is a system of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign and head of state of Antigua and Barbuda. The current Antiguan and Barbudan monarch and head of state, since 8 September 2022, is King Charles III. As sovereign, he is the personal embodiment of the Crown of Antigua and Barbuda. Although the person of the sovereign is equally shared with 14 other independent countries within the Commonwealth of Nations, each country's monarchy is separate and legally distinct. As a result, the current monarch is officially titled King of Antigua and Barbuda and, in this capacity, he and other members of the Royal Family undertake public and private functions domestically and abroad as representatives of Antigua and Barbuda. However, the King is the only member of the Royal Family with any constitutional role.
The Legal Services Act 2007 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that seeks to liberalise and regulate the market for legal services in England and Wales, to encourage more competition and to provide a new route for consumer complaints. It also makes provisions about the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007.
The monarchy of The Bahamas is a system of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign and head of state of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. The current Bahamian monarch and head of state, since 8 September 2022, is King Charles III. As sovereign, he is the personal embodiment of the Bahamian Crown. Although the person of the sovereign is equally shared with 14 other independent countries within the Commonwealth of Nations, each country's monarchy is separate and legally distinct. As a result, the current monarch is officially titled King of The Bahamas and, in this capacity, he and other members of the royal family undertake public and private functions domestically and abroad as representatives of the Bahamian state. However, the King is the only member of the Royal Family with any constitutional role.
The monarchy of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a system of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign and head of state of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The current Vincentian monarch and head of state, since 8 September 2022, is King Charles III. As sovereign, he is the personal embodiment of the Vincentian Crown. Although the person of the sovereign is equally shared with 14 other independent countries within the Commonwealth of Nations, each country's monarchy is separate and legally distinct. As a result, the current monarch is officially titled King of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and, in this capacity, he and other members of the royal family undertake public and private functions domestically and abroad as representatives of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. However, the King is the only member of the royal family with any constitutional role.
In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries such as Canada, a crown servant is a "person employed by the Crown". Although the term is not consistently defined, generally all executive officials and their staffs, civil servants, police officers, judicial officials, and members of the armed forces are crown servants.
The Succession to the Throne Act, 2013, gave Canada's assent to the United Kingdom's 2013 changes to the rules of succession to the British throne. It was passed by the Parliament of Canada as Bill C-53, and received royal assent on 27 March 2013. The act was brought into force by the Governor-General-in-Council on 26 March 2015.
If each separate office that person held had been a "corporation sole" (i.e. recognised in law as a separate legal entity)...
of the states, with explicit statutory provisions for corporations sole in about a third