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 M¢25  Funded By Mahalo ? |  July 07, 2009 04:24 PM

Is it possible for an organization to be defamed in the legal sense?

Interesting Question?  Yes (1)   No (0)   

Interesting: shinju

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July 08, 2009 09:00 PM | view on twitter
Yes, it's possible for organizations to be defamed in the legal sense. For the purposes of this answer, an "organization" as an entity will be expanded to include businesses as corporations or otherwise.

While the traditional definition of defamation refers to persons as private individuals, defamation has been expanded to include businesses, under the legal theory that corporations are artificial persons or entities. As such, corporations are taxed separately from their shareholders and are afforded certain legal protections under the Constitution. The extent to which Constitutional protections should be afforded to artificial entities is still under debate.

Consequently, defamation, which can be divided into two separate torts -- libel (remember "literary" for that which is written or depicted) and slander (remember "spoken" for that which is said aloud) -- is said to "involve the communication of false information about a person, a group, or an entity such as a corporation." Check the second link to get more clarification; the article appears to have been exerpted from West's Encyclopedia of American Law.

Respectfully,
Shin
Source(s):
corporate-personhood debate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood_debate#Recent_background

encyclopedic reference to defamation
http://www.answers.com/topic/slander-and-libel



Tags: defamation, person, slander, corporation, libel

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