Legal consciousness and the international legal personality of company-states in colonial Africa. KU Leuven
Unlike states, corporations – like private individuals – are not considered as full subjects of public international law and therefore only possess derivative or functional legal personality. However, the focus on the state as the primary legal person in public international law is of relatively modern origins. For centuries, European sovereigns outsourced the task of overseas empire-building to chartered companies, such as the Dutch or ...