The State's Power over Foreign Corporations

Authors

Harold M. Bowman

Abstract

This paper is devoted to a consideration of certain phases of our constitutional law governing the authority of the states over foreign corporations as that authority developed between the end of the fourth decade of the last century and the end of the first decade of this, and as it has been altered by a remarkable group of decisions rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States only about a year ago. The subject is one which concerns the frame of our institutions, for the final view which the Court shall take upon the questions involved in this matter will largely establish the boundaries of State and Federal power in zones which perhaps today it is a euphemism to describe as "twilight" zones. The view ultimately taken by the court will also determine whether any state shall continue to have the power openly to flout the Federal Constitution by imposing capital punishment upon artificial persons on the express ground that they have availed themselves of a constitutionally guaranteed privilege, such a privilege as that of recourse to the Federal Courts. It is not final results but processes, progress towards results that are examined. The law of this subject is still in a state of evolution. So he who reads these pages may be warned that he goes a journey without promise of a destination, though, it may be, he will be helped to speculate on what the destination is to be. Some questions have been answered by the Supreme Court's latest decisions on this subject. But others have been raised by them-questions that, as we shall see, at least suggest that we are on the eve of some significant changes in our constitutional outlook.

Recommended Citation

Harold M. Bowman, The State's Power over Foreign Corporations, 9 Mich. L. Rev. 549 (1911).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol9/iss7/1