Corporations and other legal entities will continue to exist even after the world ends

As might be expected, I must say that his response does not counter my opening argument. Reasons follow. 1. My opponent appears to be arguing that destruction by natural causes of the record in question has the immediate and automatic effect of unincorporating the legal entity in question (the company). That simply cannot be correct. Imagine that a fire destroys the corporate register. Does that mean that the company ceases to exist? Of course not. By the same token, imagine that a person's certificate of marriage is destroyed in a flood. Is the person still married? Of course they are. In both above situations the legal status quo continues until such time that it is challenged (usually in Court) and a legally valid finding is made to the contrary. As posted in my opening argument, companies must be STRUCK OFF the register in order for them to become unincorporated. Striking off does not mean "wiping out". It means that a legally competent and qualified officer (for example a Judge) makes a decision to unincorporate the company and that decision is recorded in the register. 2. A corporation is a legal entity in itself. It does NOT comprise its officers. Officers are merely there to manage the corporation. They are not its PART. Equally, shareholders are the OWNERS of the corporation. They are not PART of the corporation. The corporation legally "lives" as an independent legal person. My opponent's argument here may have PRACTICAL merit. I must of course concede that for all practical purposes it will never matter whether companies continue to exist as legal persons after the world is destroyed. Indeed, that was never my intention. Any suggestion to the contrary would be nothing short of demented. However, this debate is not about practicalities. It is about the legal status (the existence or otherwise) of a legal entity. At a risk of repeating myself, I will state that the legal provisions governing the subject matter are quite clear on the question of how a company ceases to exist as a legal person. There must be a decision of a competent body (eg a Court or a Liquidator) that the company should be unincorporated. That decision must be followed by the ACT of striking the company off the register. Unless and until that happens, the company continues to live. The remaining proposition put by my opponent is that if persons who have "signed" on it die then the corporation dies with them. Furthermore, he argues, if their "heirs" are also dead then the corporation no longer exists. Let us imagine another scenario. I die. I leave no heirs. I have no family. Being the arrogant and pig-headed person that I am, I have no friends. After my death I leave behind a somewhat large house with a swimming pool. No owner, no heirs. My opponent would here be left with no choice but to argue that the said property would then no longer in existence. "Oh no", I can hear him say, "that is different because the house is a physical thing. It's clearly there. A company is not a physical thing and it's left with no owners". Well, physical or not, each share of a corporation is an Asset. Hence the entire corporation also is an asset. Just like the house. Now I will take it further. Imagine that all the shareholders of a trucking company die tomorrow in a massive plane crash (on their way to the Bahamas for a "conference"). Along with them die the directors. There are no heirs. Does that mean that the trucking company has stopped existing? Of course not. It may be that in a few days some court somewhere will decide that the company should be deregistered. But until that happens, it will continue to exist. My last remark is as follows: Please let us keep in mind that this IS a purely theoretical and purely legal debate. It is not meant to serve any practical purpose. That was my intention at the outset and that should be patently clear.