To be incorporated is to form a legal entity known as a corporation. State business laws govern the process of incorporation and the specific benefits that entities gain access to as a result of being incorporated. Once incorporated, a corporation is treated legally as an artificial person capable of suing and being sued; purchasing, owning, lending, and borrowing any property or assets; and conducting any lawful business.
Delaware, the most popular jurisdiction for incorporation, outlines the basic elements of the incorporation process in its General Corporate Law §101:
- “(a) Any person, partnership, association or corporation, singly or jointly with others, and without regard to such person’s or entity’s residence, domicile or state of incorporation, may incorporate or organize a corporation under this chapter by filing with the Division of Corporations in the Department of State a certificate of incorporation which shall be executed, acknowledged and filed in accordance with § 103 of this title.
- (b) A corporation may be incorporated or organized under this chapter to conduct or promote any lawful business or purposes, except as may otherwise be provided by the Constitution or other law of this State.”
In constitutional law, the term incorporated especially refers to the process of applying the Bill of Rights to the states via the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause. If the Supreme Court rules that an element of the Bill of Rights should be applied to the states, then the element becomes incorporated. Some amendments are fully incorporated, while others are only partially or not at all incorporated.
[Last updated in June of 2023 by the Wex Definitions Team]