In what year was the Delaware General Corporation Law first enacted? The answer is 1899.
Delaware adopted its general incorporation act on March 10, 1899. The law was designed partly to attract companies that wanted to incorporate outside their home states, following New Jersey’s earlier success with business-friendly corporate legislation. At the time, forming a corporation often required a special act of a state legislature; general incorporation laws made the process more broadly available through filing and meeting statutory requirements.
Delaware’s early law was only the beginning of its corporate prominence. After New Jersey tightened its corporate rules in 1913, Delaware became an increasingly popular jurisdiction. Its corporate statute has since been repeatedly amended, while Delaware’s Court of Chancery developed a large body of specialized business-law decisions.
A common mix-up is confusing the 1899 enactment with later revisions or with Delaware’s modern codification as Title 8, Chapter 1 of the Delaware Code. The 1899 date refers to the original general incorporation act, not the date of every later version of the statute.