Who Counts as a Person in Law
Law recognizes two kinds of persons:
- Natural persons: human beings. Personality begins with live birth and ends with death.
- Legal persons: organizations the law treats as subjects in their own right, such as companies and foundations. A company can own property, sign contracts, and be sued in its own name separately from its members.
The entire lesson turns on the difference between two concepts:
- Legal capacity: the ability to hold rights and duties. Every person has it from birth.
- Capacity to act: the ability to exercise those rights personally. This is graduated, reaching full capacity at the age of majority, 18.
| Legal capacity | Capacity to act | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Holding rights and duties | Exercising them personally |
| Who has it | Every person, from birth | Graduated, full at 18 |
| Can it be limited? | No | Yes (minority, judicial measures) |
Capacities and Business Creation
A seven-year-old can own an apartment via legal capacity, but cannot sell it without capacity to act. Representatives must fill the gap.
Common pitfall: Assuming a minor cannot own property. A newborn can inherit a house, but representatives must act for them in transactions.
How legal persons are born: companies acquire personality by incorporation through a public deed before a notary plus registration in the Commercial Registry. Before registration, individuals acting in the company's name answer personally for its debts.
Why it matters for business: personality creates a wall between company debts and owner wallets, decides who can validly sign, and marks the exact day a firm starts existing in the eyes of the law.