THE END OF LEGAL PERSONALITY
DEATH AND ITS LEGAL SIGNIFICANCE
• Legal personality is the ability to be the bearer of rights, duties and capacities.
• In the case of natural persons, legal personality arises at the live birth of a human: with juristic
persons usually occurs through a form of registration with a public authority.
• If a legal subject ceases to have legal personality, it can’t be the bearer of rights, duties and
capacities.
• then also be ended or changed or transferred when the law no longer recognises the legal
personality of the original individual.
• Though the rights, duties and capacities can of course no longer be exercised by the
deceased, it is perhaps not entirely true to say that these rights, duties and capacities lose all
legal relevance. Many of these rights and duties remain in existence in some form and are
retained, managed and transferred in various ways.
JURISTIC PERSONS
• The ending of the personality of a juristic person does not present many theoretical or practical
challenges.
• The legal personality of a juristic person generally comes to an end when the formal
requirements for its end are present or created, either in terms of statute or in terms of common
law.
NATURAL PERSONS
• The legal personality of a natural person terminates when they die.
PROOF OF DEATH
• Death is accepted as having the legal consequence of terminating legal personality.
• In the legal system, being dead does not in itself end legal personality - proof of such death,
upon a particular standard and acceptable to the legal authority, must be provided before legal
personality can formally come to an end.
• Legal personality is terminated by the legal authority.
• In the South African legal system, evidence of the physical death of a person usually takes the
form of a certificate signed by a medical doctor.
• Upon receipt of this certificate, the Department of Home Affairs issues a formal death
certificate, which is prima facie proof of death.'
• It is important to note that physical death and the termination of legal personality are separate
matters determined by different professions - the law rely on medical evidence regarding the
cessation of certain biological functions of the natural person, but in principle it is really the
legal process and not the medical profession that determines the end of legal personality.
• Regarding deciding whether a person is biologically dead, the medical profession relies on
observations relating to three fundamental anatomical systems that support biological life to
establish death.
• There is, however, no ultimate consistency in the use and application of these practices and
observations.
DEATH AND ITS LEGAL SIGNIFICANCE
• Legal personality is the ability to be the bearer of rights, duties and capacities.
• In the case of natural persons, legal personality arises at the live birth of a human: with juristic
persons usually occurs through a form of registration with a public authority.
• If a legal subject ceases to have legal personality, it can’t be the bearer of rights, duties and
capacities.
• then also be ended or changed or transferred when the law no longer recognises the legal
personality of the original individual.
• Though the rights, duties and capacities can of course no longer be exercised by the
deceased, it is perhaps not entirely true to say that these rights, duties and capacities lose all
legal relevance. Many of these rights and duties remain in existence in some form and are
retained, managed and transferred in various ways.
JURISTIC PERSONS
• The ending of the personality of a juristic person does not present many theoretical or practical
challenges.
• The legal personality of a juristic person generally comes to an end when the formal
requirements for its end are present or created, either in terms of statute or in terms of common
law.
NATURAL PERSONS
• The legal personality of a natural person terminates when they die.
PROOF OF DEATH
• Death is accepted as having the legal consequence of terminating legal personality.
• In the legal system, being dead does not in itself end legal personality - proof of such death,
upon a particular standard and acceptable to the legal authority, must be provided before legal
personality can formally come to an end.
• Legal personality is terminated by the legal authority.
• In the South African legal system, evidence of the physical death of a person usually takes the
form of a certificate signed by a medical doctor.
• Upon receipt of this certificate, the Department of Home Affairs issues a formal death
certificate, which is prima facie proof of death.'
• It is important to note that physical death and the termination of legal personality are separate
matters determined by different professions - the law rely on medical evidence regarding the
cessation of certain biological functions of the natural person, but in principle it is really the
legal process and not the medical profession that determines the end of legal personality.
• Regarding deciding whether a person is biologically dead, the medical profession relies on
observations relating to three fundamental anatomical systems that support biological life to
establish death.
• There is, however, no ultimate consistency in the use and application of these practices and
observations.
