Legal Personality

Legal personality (also artificial personality, juridical personality, legal entity and juristic personality) is the characteristic of a non-living entity regarded by law to have the status of personhood.

A legal person (Latin: persona ficta) (also artificial person, juridical person, juristic person, legal entity and body corporate, also commonly called a vehicle) has a legal name and has certain rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and liabilities under law, similar to those of a natural person. The concept of a legal person is a fundamental legal fiction. It is pertinent to the philosophy of law, as it is essential to laws affecting a corporation (corporations law) (the law of business associations).

Legal personality allows one or more natural persons to act as a single entity (a composite person) for legal purposes. In many jurisdictions, legal personality allows that composite to be considered under law separately from its individual members or shareholders. They may sue and be sued, enter contracts, incur debt, and own property. Entities with legal personality may also be subjected to certain legal obligations, such as the payment of taxes. An entity with legal personality may shield its shareholders from personal liability.

The concept of legal personality is not absolute. "Piercing the corporate veil" refers to looking at the individual natural persons acting as agents involved in a corporate action or decision; this may result in a legal decision in which the rights or duties of a corporation are treated as the rights or liabilities of that corporation's shareholders or directors. Generally, legal persons do not have all of the same rights—such as the right to freedom of speech—that natural persons have, although the Republic of Iran has become an exception in this regard.

The concept of a legal person is now central to Western law in both common-law and civil-law countries, but it is also found in virtually every legal system.