Business Law for Managers

Business Law for Managers

Doctrine of Incorporation

The incorporation doctrine is a legal doctrine which was developed by the Supreme Court of Unites States. The doctrine is sometimes uses in the cases pertaining to the Bill of Right which is the first ten amendments to the constitution. The rational of the doctrine is based on the clause of fourteenth amendment to the constitution of United States. The doctrine of incorporation when applied is used to grant the same and equal rights to the citizens as the federal government exercise the power under the bill of right (O'Keefe, 2009, pp. 165).

Before the passage of doctrine of incorporation, the power and jurisdiction of the bill of right was limited to federal government. In 1791, though the bill of right was ratified and before the passage of fourteen amendment in 1868. But the incorporation doctrine was created in 1890 and there onward the due process clause of fourteenth amendment was extended to the citizens of the US. The court was compelled by the impending cases related to fourteenth amendment and the court started to interpret the broader interpretation of fourteenth amendment.

For the first time in US history, some part of the bill of right were became enforceable against the government of state. Certain part of the bill of right, over the time identified and incorporated gradually as falling under the scope of fourteenth amendment. This doctrine made the court enable to make the state government binding part of the decisions because the fourteenth amendment now also applied to the states.

Historical Development

The origin of the incorporation doctrine can be traced back to Quincy and Burlington Railroad Vs City of Chicago of 1897. In this case the Supreme Court seemed to give some sort of compensation property appropriated by the state or by the local authority. The second major development for doctrine of incorporation was Gitlow Vs New York of 1925. In this case the Supreme Court held expressly that it is the duty of the state to take care of its citizens and it is bound to protect the rights of freedom of its citizens. After the judgment of these landmark cases, the Supreme Court has started to incorporate the significant provision of the bill of right (Hunter et al., 2010, pp.23).

Incorporation doctrine is applied to both substantively and procedurally to the guarantees of the local authority and the state. In the procedurally process, only jury might convict the defendant of the crime because the six amendment of jury trial is incorporated against local authorities and the states. In the substantive process, the state must understand and accept the First Amendment prohibition against the state owned and state based religion, regardless of the states laws and regulation which offers such prohibition or not.

Explanation

According the incorporation doctrine the clause Due Process of Fourteenth Amendment applied to the bill of right protection to the states. The matter of incorporating may be selective and it includes all those rights which are deemed basic and ...