The Incidents of Legal Personhood

Abstract The chapter presents a new theory of legal personhood. It argues that legal personhood is a cluster property, and best understood in terms of disseverable but interconnected incidents. It sets out by distinguishing passive and active incidents, and then enumerates and presents both types of incidents. While doing so, the chapter highlights the benefits of an incident-based approach to legal personhood. After presenting the incidents, the notion of a ‘subject of law’ is offered as an alternative way of analysing legal personhood. The chapter concludes by addressing some of the connections between personhood and legal personhood.