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To have legal personality means to be capable of having legal rights and obligations〔 〕 within a certain legal system, such as entering into contracts, suing, and being sued. Legal personality is a prerequisite to legal capacity, the ability of any legal person to amend (enter into, transfer, etc.) rights and obligations. In international law, consequently, legal personality is a prerequisite for an international organization to be able to sign international treaties in its own name. Legal persons (lat. ''persona iuris'') are of two kinds: ''natural persons'' (also called ''physical persons'') and ''juridical persons'' (also called ''juridic'', ''juristic'', ''artificial'', or ''fictitious persons'', lat. ''persona ficta'') – groups of individuals, such as corporations, which are treated by law as if they are persons.〔〔''() men in law and philosophy are natural persons. This might be taken to imply there are persons of another sort. And that is a fact. They are artificial persons or corporations ()'' 〕〔''Besides men or “natural persons,” law knows persons of another kind. In particular it knows the corporation, and for a multitude of purposes it treats the corporation very much as it treats the man. Like the man, the corporation is (forgive this compound adjective) a right-and-duty-bearing unit.'' 〕 While human beings acquire legal personhood when they are born, juridical persons do so when they are incorporated in accordance with law. == Juridical persons == Artificial personality, juridical personality, or juristic personality is the characteristic of a non-living entity regarded by law to have the status of personhood. A juridical or artificial person ((ラテン語:persona ficta); also juristic person) has a legal name and has certain rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and liabilities in law, similar to those of a natural person. The concept of a juridical 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). Juridical personality allows one or more natural persons (''universitas personarum'') to act as a single entity (body corporate) for legal purposes. In many jurisdictions, artificial personality allows that entity to be considered under law separately from its individual members (for example in a company limited by shares, its 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 members from personal liability. In some common law jurisdictions a distinction is drawn between ''corporation aggregate'' (such as a company, which has a number of members) and a ''corporation sole'' (which is where a person's public office is deemed to have a separate personality from them as an individual). Both have separate legal personality. Historically most corporations sole were ecclesiastical in nature (for example, the Archbishop of Canterbury is a corporation sole), but a number of other public offices are now formed as corporations sole. The concept of juridical personality is not absolute. "Piercing the corporate veil" refers to looking at the individual natural persons acting as agents involved in a company action or decision; this may result in a legal decision in which the rights or duties of a corporation or public limited company are treated as the rights or liabilities of that corporation's members or directors. The concept of a juridical 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.〔(The Juristic Person. I ), George F. Deiser, University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register, Vol. 57, No. 3, Volume 48 New Series. (Dec., 1908), pp. 131-142.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Legal personality」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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