Legal person

Any person or 'thing' (more specifically, any legal entity) that is able to perform the things that a human person is typically able to do in the legal system, such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, possess property, and so on, is considered to be a legal person in the legal system. Companies and corporations are "persons" legally speaking (they can legally do most of the things an ordinary person can do), but they are not people in the literal sense. This is the basis for the phrase "legal person," since some legal persons are not people.

Because of this, there are two different categories of legal entities: human and non-human. In legal parlance, a human being is referred to as a natural person, while a non-human being is referred to as a juridical person. Sometimes natural persons are also referred to as physical persons (sometimes also a juridic, juristic, artificial, legal, or fictitious person, Latin: persona ficta).

Entities such as businesses, firms (in certain jurisdictions), and a significant number of government organisations are examples of juridical persons. In the eyes of the law, they are the same thing as real people.

This is because juridical persons must have legal personality conferred on them by some "unnatural" legal process. Legal personality is often gained by registration with a government agency that has been specifically established for the purpose of providing this service in the most frequent scenario, which is the incorporation of a firm. In other circumstances, it can be via primary law; the Charity Commission in the UK is an example of this. As part of the 2030 Agenda, Sustainable Development Goal 16 of the United Nations calls for the provision of legal identification for all people, including the registration of births, by the year 2030.

Due to the fact that having legal personality is a prerequisite for having legal capacity, which is the ability of any legal person to make changes to their rights and obligations (such as entering into new agreements, transferring ownership, etc.), having legal personality is a requirement for an international organisation to be able to sign international treaties in its own name.

Because it is often used as a synonym for phrases that apply solely to non-human legal entities, the term "legal person" might give rise to ambiguity. More precisely, the term "legal person" is used in contrast to the term "natural person."