With the development of companies, a special legal framework became a necessity. The special legal framework and body of law that specifically grants the corporation legal personality, and it typically views a corporation as a legal entity or a moral person that shields its owners from "corporate" losses or liabilities. It furthermore creates an inducement to new investors (marketable stocks and future stock issuance).
Corporate statutes typically empower corporations to own property, sign binding contracts, and pay taxes in a capacity separate from that of its shareholders, who are sometimes referred to as "members". The corporation is also empowered to borrow money, both conventionally and directly to the public, by issuing interest-bearing bonds. Corporations subsist indefinitely; "death" comes only by absorption (takeover) or bankruptcy.