Legal person

Legal person is an entity vested with sufficient characteristics of personhood to merit a legal identity separate from its constituent members. These characteristics include: the right to commence or respond to legal action in the entity's name; the right to own assets in the entity's name; and the right to enter into obligations in the entity's name. Legal persons generally include: states; international governmental organisations; public or private entities incorporated pursuant to the law of a state and vested by that state with the characteristics of personhood, such as an English public limited company (PLC), a Delaware limited liability partnership (LLP), a French société anonyme (S.A.), a German gesellschaft mit beschränkter hafting (GmbH), the City of New York, etc.

Definitions

According to the CyBOK (version 1),

Legal person. An entity vested with sufficient characteristics of personhood to merit a legal identity separate from its constituent members. These characteristics include: the right to commence or respond to legal action in the entity's name; the right to own assets in the entity's name; and the right to enter into obligations in the entity's name. Legal persons generally include: states; international governmental organisations; public or private entities incorporated pursuant to the law of a state and vested by that state with the characteristics of personhood, such as an English public limited company (PLC), a Delaware limited liability partnership (LLP), a French société anonyme (S.A.), a German gesellschaft mit beschränkter hafting (GmbH), the City of New York, etc.