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What entity could engage in legal conduct?

Publication at Faculty of Law |
2019

Abstract

The second chapter titled "What entity could engage in legal conduct?" aims to explain the prerequisites that must be met for any legal entity to have capacity to enter into legal relationships and thus act as a person in terms of law, i.e. an entity vested with rights and obligations. There are two essential prerequisites for a person to be able to engage in any conduct, including legal conduct: reason and will.

However, the law also provides for the concept of "persons lacking legal capacity", i.e. entities that lack reason and will, or persons in whom these faculties are insufficiently developed. This raises a question of how it is possible that such persons enter into legal relationships and acquire rights and obligations.

To understand how a person lacking reason and will could engage in legal conduct, we first need to explain the meaning of the notion of "conduct" and how it differs from "legal conduct". The first difference lies in the purpose of "conduct" and "legal conduct", respectively.

The second then lies in the question as to who can engage in "conduct", on the one hand, and in "legal conduct", on the other hand. Once those questions are answered, it then becomes clear how law permits even a person without reason and will, i.e. lacking legal competence, to engage in legal conduct.