Delaware Live56%
Delaware’s $2 billion corporate franchise is good business for all Delawareans 62%
By Alliance to Protect Delaware’s Future87%
7/28/2026, 6:39:33 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 14 faulty reasoning types, including Hasty Generalization, Halo Effect, and Appeal to Authority, with Confirmation Bias as the most egregious example at 70.5% saturation with 856 hits. Analysis detected 1,779 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,214 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 51.7% and a BS Rank of 62% (9,600 of 25,250 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 62.00% of the article peer group.
Part 1: Businesses are still choosing
Delaware Civics 101 Special Series: The Corporate Capital sponsored by the Alliance to Protect Delaware’s Future
In so many ways, there’s no better place to be than Delaware.
That’s certainly true for about 2.2 million businesses that continue to call our state home, even as other states work to claim Delaware’s title as the nation’s corporate capital.
After decades of dominance as the preferred legal home for U.S. corporations, Delaware still stands above the ever-increasing competition, thanks to a time-tested mix of expert courts, nimble laws, and a responsive state government.
Here’s a look at why that really matters – to every Delaware resident, and to the state’s continued prosperity.
In 2025 alone, 334,461 new business entities were formed in the First State, a 15% increase over 2024.
Despite some calls for companies to exit Delaware, many businesses clearly have good reasons for sticking with a longtime winner.
No other state has a business court that’s produced decades’ worth of tested case law.
No other state can claim as many expert litigators, experienced judges, and reliable precedents.
No other state combines those legal resources with compelling advantages, especially for firms seeking venture capital and growth.
And no other state has Delaware’s ability to nimbly pivot as business needs change, thanks to a legal and policy framework built to keep improving.
“Here in Delaware, we have an amazing legacy – a foundation, built upon over 230 years of experience of testing, of trial and error, of navigating new territory, course-correcting when necessary.
This puts us far ahead of the pack,” said Karen L.
Valihura, a former Delaware Supreme Court Justice, and founding director of the Corporate Law, Governance and Practice Institute at Wilmington University’s Farnan School of Law, at a June 2026 speech at the University of Delaware’s Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance.
The stakes are easy to overlook until you count them.
Delaware’s standing as the nation’s corporate home underwrites a meaningful share of the state’s revenue; supports thousands of high-skill jobs in law, finance, and corporate services; and helps hold down the tax burden carried by ordinary residents.
Should that standing erode, the shortfall would land squarely on Delaware families in the form of higher costs, fewer services, or both.
Keeping the franchise strong is, quite simply, keeping Delaware strong.
A century-old tradition thrives today
It all began in 1899, when the state first crafted a set of laws encouraging businesses to make their home here, freeing themselves from the cumbersome and often corrupt process of incorporating through individual state legislatures.
From the start, the new regulations were also designed to give businesses a more reliable and predictable legal forum, one that stayed well clear of political influences, but provided the latitude needed to succeed.
That insulation from politics is built into the system: In Delaware, the legislature cannot dictate that corporations make partisan business decisions to advance a liberal or a conservative agenda — a protection its corporate citizens find nowhere else, and one that matters as much to investors as it does to boards.
Businesses also appreciate that those fair, non-partisan approaches carry over into Delaware’s highly specialized business court, known as the Court of Chancery.
Its judges – known as chancellors — have heard business disputes for over 100 years, building a repository of case law that still sets the gold standard across the country.
Delaware’s legal system has long ranked at or near the top of national surveys of business litigation, earning praise for judicial competence, impartiality, and fairness for both business leaders and shareholders.
Those chancellors oversee a legal framework that is designed to help businesses foster their own success.
It’s an approach that seeks to be broadly enabling, rather than prescriptive and restricting.
That philosophy starts at the top with the state Constitution, which says corporate matters should be decided by a framework of laws rather than by the whims of the General Assembly.
Known as Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL), the framework was designed to give corporations confidence that the law will apply consistently, yet give them the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, guided by experts from the Delaware State Bar Association’s Corporate Law Council who review the laws each year.
“Delaware’s judiciary remains one of the strongest, most diligent, and most responsive judicial bodies in our nation,” said Lawrence Hamermesh, emeritus professor at Widener University Delaware Law School, in a 2025 Delaware Business Court Insider article.
“Its reputation for excellence has developed over generations, with the best corporate law practitioners from all across the world having contributed to Delaware’s jurisprudence.”
Smooth-running system earns respect
Outside of courtrooms and legal codes, Delaware’s business-oriented bureaucracy offers its own kinds of benefits.
Government agencies like the Secretary of State’s office and the Division of Corporations are lauded for being responsive and customer oriented.
Corporate filings here are often processed in hours, not days — critically important to a firm that needs to issue stock to raise funds, or act swiftly for the benefit of investors.
That responsiveness runs from the courtroom to the statehouse.
When business leaders raised concerns about clarity in corporate decision-making, Delaware acted — updating the General Corporation Law and reaffirming the balance that has long defined it.
“Delaware is the best place in the world to incorporate your business,” Governor Matt Meyer said on signing that update into law, “ensuring clarity and predictability, balancing the interests of stockholders and corporate boards.”
“Delaware’s strength has always been its ability to grow without losing sight of its core principles: predictability, fairness, and adaptability,” said Rod Ward, president and chief executive officer of Delaware-based Corporation Service Company, a world leader for business, legal, and financial services, in his 2025 Delaware State Chamber of Commerce keynote speech.
With that solid system in place, Delaware has also been able to cultivate a broad foundation of support services that help keep it all running smoothly — while boosting the state’s own economic vitality by employing thousands in highly skilled roles.
“Delaware’s corporate infrastructure is more than a collection of laws,” Justice Valihura said.
“It is a comprehensive, symbiotic and synergistic system.”
It’s also a system that intentionally opens itself to fair criticisms, she added.
That self-improving process is part of the reason Delaware stays ahead of other rivals — by being willing to quickly examine its own weaknesses, Delaware reinforces its strengths.
“I have always felt that if people are very good at something, they will invariably be a target for criticism from others who compete and wish to take their place,” Valihura said.
“So, in that sense, I am reassured that being talked about is not such a bad thing.”
Valihura and others also know that defending that corporate franchise is crucial — and not just for the law industry that relies on it.
“The corporate franchise represents more than one-third of the state’s total revenue,” Ward said.
“This revenue supports essential services, from education to infrastructure to workforce development and housing needs, while enabling Delaware to remain one of the few states without a sales tax.
“This success benefits everyone in the state – from small-business owners to homeowners who enjoy some of the lowest property taxes in the region.”
Analysis
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