Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T05:06:14.791Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Changing Nature of Law's Natural Person: The Impact of Emerging Technologies on the Legal Concept of the Person

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This article discusses the legal concept of the person against the background of technological developments. Emerging technologies are offering radical ways to transform the biological and physical aspects of life. Several legal scholars claim that the technological artificialization of human life also calls for a more artificial, disembodied account of the natural person in law. According to them, the legal distinction between natural persons (human legal subjects) and artificial persons (non-human legal subjects, such as corporations) is becoming diluted and increasingly redundant. This article argues that, in an era of growing technological and postmodern disembodiment, the traditional legal distinction between natural and artificial persons remains important, albeit in a different form. An examination of the legal concept of the person in biomedical law suggests that law's category of the natural person still has its merits, not just despite these technological developments, but, remarkably enough, also because of them.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by German Law Journal, Inc. 

References

1 Gustav Radbruch, Der Mensch im Recht. Ausgewählte Vorträge und Aufsätze über Grundfragen des Rechts 9 (1961) (“Nichts ist so entscheidend für den Stil eines Rechtszeitalters wie die Auffassung vom Menschen, an der es sich orientiert”).Google Scholar

2 See infra notes 43, 51, 60, and 62.Google Scholar

3 See Radin, Max, The Endless Problem of Corporate Personality, 32 Colum. L. Rev. 643 (1932).Google Scholar

4 See Fagundes, David, What We Talk About When We Talk About Persons: The Language of a Legal Fiction, 114 Harv. L. Rev. 1768 (2001); Ngaire Naffine, Who Are Law's Persons? From Cheshire Cats to Responsible Subjects, 66 Mod. L. Rev. 346 (2003); and Jessica Berg, Of Elephants and Embryos: A Proposed Framework for Legal Personhood, 59 Hastings L. J. 370 (2007).Google Scholar

5 In many civil law countries, however, the law of persons is recognized as a special area of family law, with textbooks, monographs, and sometimes even heated scholarly debates on the subject.Google Scholar

6 See Fagundes, supra note 4.Google Scholar

7 The term “natural person” is used throughout this article in a strictly legal sense and should not be confused with actual flesh-and-blood human beings.Google Scholar

8 Even though the terms “juristic” or “juridical person” are also common, “artificial person” is used here because the main theme of this article concerns the artificialization of natural persons and human beings.Google Scholar

9 See, e.g., Supiot, Alain, Homo Juridicus: On the Anthropological Function of the Law (Saskia Brown trans., 2007); Ngaire Naffine, Law's Meaning of Life: Philosophy, Religion, Darwin and the Legal Person (2009); Sheryl Hamilton, Impersonations: Troubling the Person in Law and Culture (2010); Dorien Pessers, The Symbolic Meaning of Legal Subjectivity, in Symbolic Legislation Theory and New Developments in Biolaw (Bart van Klink, Britta van Beers & Lonneke Poort eds., 2016); Britta van Beers, Persoon en Lichaam in het Recht. Menselijke Waardigheid en Zelfbeschikking in het Tijdperk van de Medische Biotechnologie (2009); Florence Bellivier, Le Droit des Personnes (2015); La Personnalité Juridique (Xavier Bioy ed., 2013).Google Scholar

10 See infra note 11.Google Scholar

11 See 1 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 123 (1765). From that perspective, Blackstone's explanation of the difference between natural and artificial persons is misleading: “Persons also are divided by the law into either natural persons, or artificial. Natural persons are such as the God of nature formed us; artificial are such as are created and devised by human laws for the purposes of society and government, which are called corporations or bodies politic.” Id. Google Scholar

12 See Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 17 US 518 (1819).Google Scholar

13 Because of its defining asset of perpetual succession.Google Scholar

14 A.W. Machen, Corporate Personality, 24 Harv. L. Rev. 253 (1911).Google Scholar

15 Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Ideas about Naturalness in Public and Political Debates about Science, Technology and Medicine, 106 (November 2015), http://nuffieldbioethics.org/wp-content/uploads/NCOB_unnatural_booklet.pdf.Google Scholar

16 See Emberland, Marius, The Human Rights of Companies: Exploring the Structure of ECHR Protection (2006); Anna Grear, Human Rights – Human Bodies? Some Reflections on Corporate Human Rights Distortion, the Legal Subject, Embodiment and Human Rights Theory, 17 L. and Critique 171 (2006); Anna Grear, Challenging Corporate ‘Humanity’: Legal Disembodiment, Embodiment and Human Rights, 7:3 Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 511 (2007); Anat Scolnicov, Lifelike and Lifeless in Law: Do Corporations Have Human Rights?, in University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series 13/2013 (2013), http://ssrn.com/abstract=2268537.Google Scholar

17 See HFEA statement on licensing of applications to carry out research using human-animal cytoplasmic hybrid embryos, http://www.hfea.gov.uk/418.html. In 2008, the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) granted the first licenses to create these hybrids.Google Scholar

18 In the UK, both the Congenital Disabilities Act 1976, especially Section 1A, and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (“HFE Act”), especially Section 13(5), refer to the welfare and protection of children born from ARTs. For a recent discussion of the complexities surrounding this legal guideline, see Sheldon, Sally, Ellie Lee & Jan Macvarish, ‘Supportive Parenting’, Responsibility and Regulation: The Welfare Assessment under the Reformed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (1990), 78 Mod. L. Rev. 461 (2015).Google Scholar

19 See, e.g., Pennings, G., G. de Wert, F. Shenfield, J. Cohen, B. Tarlatzis, & P. Devroey, ESHRE Task Force on Ethics and Law: The Welfare of the Child in Medically Assisted Reproduction, 22 Hum. Reproduction 2585 (2007).Google Scholar

20 See Shah, Seema K. & Miller, Frank G., Can We Handle the Truth? Legal Fictions in the Determination of Death, 36 Am. J. L. & Med. 540–85 (2010).Google ScholarPubMed

21 See, e.g., Raus, Kasper, Sigrid Sterckx & Freddy Mortier, Continuous Deep Sedation at the End of Life and the Natural Death Hypothesis, 26(6) Bioethics 329 (2012).Google Scholar

22 See, e.g., Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 c. 2 (Eng.); see Wet Lesbisch Ouderschap 1 April 2014 (Neth.); see Pessers, Dorien, De Terugkeer van de Bastaard, 88 Nederlands Juristenblad 2595–96 (2013) (a critical analysis of the Dutch act).Google Scholar

23 In British Columbia (Canada) and California (USA), it has become possible to have three legal parents. See Cassidy, Patricia, Canada: Three Parents Listed on Baby's Birth Certificate, Bionews (Feb. 17, 2014), http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_396795.asp; see also Patrick McGreevy & Melanie Mason, Brown Signs Bill to Allow Children to Have More than Two Legal Parents, Los Angeles Times (Oct. 4, 2013), http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/04/local/la-me-brown-bills-parents-20131005.Google Scholar

24 The United Kingdom is the first nation worldwide to allow this technology. See Devlin, H., Britain's House of Lords approves conception of three-person babies, The Guardian (Feb. 24, 2015), http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/24/uk-house-of-lords-approves-conception-of-three-person-babies.Google Scholar

25 Christine Goodwin v. United Kingdom, App. No. 28957/95 (11 July 2002), http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/.Google Scholar

26 According to Transgender Europe, 21 European countries in 2014 still, for example, required transgender people to undergo sterilization before their new gender identity could be legally recognized. See Trans Rights Euro Map, 2014, http://www.tgeu.org/sites/default/files/Trans_Map_Index_2014.pdf.Google Scholar

27 For an overview of the European situation regarding the human rights of transgender people, see International, Amnesty, The State Decides Who I Am: Lack of Legal Gender Recognition for Transgender People in Europe (Feb. 4, 2014).Google Scholar

28 Helmuth Plessner, Die Stufen des Organischen und der Mensch: Einleitung in die philosophische Anthropologie 383 (1981).Google Scholar

29 Transhumanist philosophers, such as Nick Bostrom, Julian Savulescu and John Harris, advocate altering the human condition through human enhancement technologies, such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and biotechnology.Google Scholar

30 See supra note 9, for her monograph Law's Meaning of Life, which builds on earlier work.Google Scholar

31 Ngaire Naffine, Review Essay: Liberating the Legal Person, 26 Canadian J. L. & Soc'y 202 (2011).Google Scholar

32 Hamilton, supra note 9, 20–21Google Scholar

33 Berg, supra note 4.Google Scholar

34 Anna Grear, Law's Entities: Complexity, Plasticity and Justice, 4 Juris. 101 (2013).Google Scholar

35 Marcela Iacub, Le Crime était Presque Sexuel (2002); Marcela Iacub, Penser les Droits de la Naissance (2002).Google Scholar

36 Ngaire Naffine, Our Legal Lives as Men, Women and Persons, 21 Legal Stud. 642 (2004).Google Scholar

37 Naffine, supra note 9, at 45.Google Scholar

38 Yan Thomas, Le Sujet de Droit, la Personne et la Nature: Sur la Critique Contemporaine du Sujet de Droit, Le Débat 106 (1998).Google Scholar

39 Grear, supra note 34.Google Scholar

40 David Deroussin, Personnes, Choses, Corps, in Le Corps et Ses Représentations 79 (Emmanuel Dockès and Gilles Lhuilier eds., 2001).Google Scholar

41 Yan Thomas, Le Sujet Concret et Sa Personne. Essai d'Histoire Juridique Rétrospective, in Du Droit de ne pas Naître. À Propos de l'Affaire Perruche (Olivier Cayla and Yan Thomas eds., 2002) 88–170; lacub, supra note 35.Google Scholar

42 See infra Section C.II.Google Scholar

43 John Dewey, The Historic Background of Corporate Legal Personality, 35 Yale L.J. 658 (1926).Google Scholar

44 Richard Tur, The “Person” in Law, in Persons and Personality (A. Peacocke and G. Gillett eds., 1987) 123); Thomas, supra note 41; Deroussin, supra note 40.Google Scholar

45 Jan H.A. Lokin, Byzantine Law: Persons, in Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History (S.N. Katz ed., 2009).Google Scholar

46 Thomas, supra note 41, at 145.Google Scholar

47 Hamilton, supra note 9, at 13.Google Scholar

48 Dewey, supra note 43, at 658.Google Scholar

49 Fagundes, supra note 4, at 1745.Google Scholar

50 Naffine, supra note 30, at 201.Google Scholar

51 More precisely: “Der gemeinsame Zurechnungspunkt für die als Pflichten und Rechte normierten Tatbestände menschlichen Verhaltens.” See Kelsen, Hans, Reine Rechtslehre 53 (Erste Auflage, 1934).Google Scholar

52 In this sense, see Naffine, supra note 36, at 623.Google Scholar

53 In this sense, see Ellul, Jacques, Sur l'Artificialité du Droit et le Droit d'Exception, 8 Archives de Philosophie de Droit 26 (1963).Google Scholar

54 Supiot, supra note 9.Google Scholar

55 Id. at 15.Google Scholar

56 See Fagundes, supra note 4.Google Scholar

57 Dewey, supra note 43, at 655.Google Scholar

58 See, e.g., Gray, J.C., The Nature and Sources of law 27 (1909).Google Scholar

59 See Kelsen, Hans, Pure Theory of Law 172 (2nd ed. 1967); B. Smith, Legal Personality, 37 Yale L.J. 293 (1928).Google Scholar

60 Fuller, Lon L., Legal Fictions 25 U. Ill. L. Rev. 363, 373 (1930). In similar vein, see Fagundes, supra note 4; Naffine, supra note 30; Hamilton, supra note 9.Google Scholar

61 Fuller, supra note 60, at 377.Google Scholar

62 Thomas, supra note 38; Thomas, supra note 41; Giorgio Agamben, Identity without the Person, in Nudities 46–54 (Giorgio Agamben, 2010); Tur, supra note 44; Hannah Arendt, On Revolution 102–03 (1966). For a different view, see Austin, John, Lectures on Jurisprudence: Or the Philosophy of Positive Law 348 (1885).Google Scholar

63 Tur, supra note 44; Thomas (2002), supra note 41; Deroussin, supra note 40; Austin, supra note 62.Google Scholar

64 Deroussin, supra note 40, at 81; Thomas (2002), supra note 41, at 126–27.Google Scholar

65 Deroussin, id.; Tur, supra note 44, at 117; Thomas (2002), supra note 41, at 127.Google Scholar

66 Tur, supra note 44, at 117; P.J. du Plessis, Roman Law: Persons, in Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History (S.N. Katz ed., 2009).Google Scholar

67 Tur, supra note 44, at 117.Google Scholar

68 Thomas, supra note 41, at 128; Deroussin, supra note 40, at 84–5.Google Scholar

69 For a similar account of this evolution, see Austin, supra note 62, at 353.Google Scholar

70 Arendt, supra note 62, at 102; Agamben, supra note 62; Thomas, supra note 41.Google Scholar

71 ‘Désincarnation du droit.‘ See Jean-Pierre Baud, L'Affaire de la Main Volée. une Histoire Juridique du Corps 47 (1993).Google Scholar

72 Thomas, supra note 38, at 104.Google Scholar

73 Tur, supra note 44, at 121.Google Scholar

74 Thomas, supra note 41, at 136.Google Scholar

75 Tur, supra note 44, at 117–18.Google Scholar

76 “Nasciturus pro iam nato habetur, quotiens de commodis eius agitur.” (D 1.5.7).Google Scholar

77 For an analysis of the concept homo sacer in the light of current biopolitical strategies in law, see Agamben, Giorgio, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (1998) which explains that the term homo sacer is a figure of Roman law that signifies a person who is banned and may be killed by anybody without punishment, but who may not be sacrificed.Google Scholar

78 “Die Leiblichkeit des Menschen ist für seine Persönlichkeit eine ganz irrelevante Eigenschaft.” See Zitelmann, Ernst, Begriff und Wesen der sogenannten juristischen Personen 68 (1873).Google Scholar

79 Gray, supra note 58, at 28 (citing Meurer).Google Scholar

80 See Baud, supra note 71; see also Deroussin, supra note 40.Google Scholar

81 See, e.g., Dickenson, Donna, Property in the Body: Feminist Perspectives 1–25 (CUP 2007); Muireann Quigley, Property in Human Biomaterials—Separating Persons and Things?, 32 Oxford J. of Legal Stud., 659 (2012).Google Scholar

82 Council Regulation 1394/2007 on advanced therapy medicinal products and amending Directive 2001/83/EC and Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 2007, Nov. 13, 2007 O.J. (L 324) 121.Google Scholar

83 See, e.g., Wall, Jesse, The Legal Status of Body Parts: A Framework, 31 Legal, Oxford J. Stud. 783 (2011); Dickenson, supra note 81; Radhika Rao, Genes and Spleens: Property, Contract, or Privacy Rights in the Human Body?, 35 J. L. & Med. Ethics 371 (2007).Google Scholar

84 See, e.g., Convention of Human Rights and Biomedicine, art. 21, Apr. 4, 1997; art. 12 Council Directive 2004/23/EC on setting standards of quality and safety for the donation, procurement, testing, processing, preservation, storage and distribution of human tissues and cells, March 31, 2004, 2004 O.J. (L 102) 48.Google Scholar

85 Dickenson, supra note 81; Campbell, Alastair V., The Body in Bioethics (2009); Jesse Wall, The Trespasses of Property Law, 40 J. Med. Ethics 21 (2014); Charles Foster, Dignity and the Use of Body Parts, 40 J. Med. Ethics 44 (2014); Rao, supra note 83.Google Scholar

86 See also Britta van Beers, Luigi Corrias & Wouter Werner, Probing the Boundaries of Humanity, in Humanity across International Law and Biolaw 11–12 (Britta van Beers, Luigi Corrias, & Wouter Werner eds., 2014).Google Scholar

87 Deryck Beyleveld & Roger Brownsword, Human Dignity in Bioethics and Biolaw (2001); Van Beers, Corrias & Werner, supra note 86; Charles Foster, Human Dignity in Bioethics and Law (2011); Christopher McCrudden, In Pursuit of Human Dignity: An Introduction to Current Debates, in Understanding Human Dignity 3 (Christopher McCrudden ed., 2013).Google Scholar

88 Beyleveld & Brownsword, supra note 87.Google Scholar

89 Roberto Andorno, Human Dignity and Human Rights as a Common Ground for a Global Bioethics, 34 J. Med. & Phil. 223 (2009).Google Scholar

90 Christopher McCrudden, Human Dignity and Judicial Interpretation of Human Rights, 19 Eur. J. Int'l L. 702 (2008).Google Scholar

91 Jonathan Herring & P.-L. Chau, My Body, Your Body, Our Bodies, 15 Med. L. Rev. 60 (2007).Google Scholar

92 See Fagundes, supra note 4; see also Fuller, supra note 60, at 377; and Naffine, supra note 30.Google Scholar

93 Fuller, supra note 60, at 369.Google Scholar

94 Witteveen, Willem J., De Retoriek in het Recht. Over Retorica en Interpretatie, Staatsrecht en Démocratie 409 (1988).Google Scholar

95 Fuller, supra note 60, at 363.Google Scholar

96 Fuller, Lon L., Legal Fictions: Third Installment, 25 U. III. L. Rev. 878 (1930–1931).Google Scholar

98 A.L. Dalle Ave et al., An Analysis of Heart Donation After Circulatory Determination of Death, J. Med. Ethics doi:10.1136/medethics-2015-103224 (2016).Google Scholar

99 See Shah & Miller, ibid; Shah, Seema K., Piercing the Veil: The Limits of Brain Death as a Legal Fiction, 48:2 U. of Mich. J. L. Reform 301 (2015); Truog, Robert D. & Miller, Frank G., Changing the Conversation about Brain Death, 14:8 Am. J. Bioethics 9 (2014); Shah, Seema K., Miller, Frank G. & Truog, Robert D., Death and Legal Fictions, 37 J. Med. Ethics 719 (2011).Google Scholar

100 See D. Allan Shewmon, Brain Death – Can It Be Resuscitated?, 39(2) Hastings Center Report 18 (2009).Google Scholar

101 Shah & Miller 2010, supra note 20, at 552.Google Scholar

102 For a more elaborate analysis of this situation, see Shah, supra note 101; Truog & Miller, supra note 101.Google Scholar

103 Shah & Miller, supra note 20, at 562.Google Scholar

104 Shah & Miller, supra note 20, at 563–64.Google Scholar

105 President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, Defining Death: A Report on the Medical, Legal and Ethical Issues in the Determination of Death 31 (1981).Google Scholar

106 Shah & Miller, supra note 20, at 560.Google Scholar

107 See supra notes 18 and 19.Google Scholar

108 In Section 1.1 of the Act.Google Scholar

109 For an overview of wrongful life actions in several jurisdictions, see Giesen, Ivo, The Use and Influence of Comparative Law in “Wrongful Life” Cases 8 Utrecht L. Rev. 35 (2012); and Ronen Perry, It's a Wonderful Life 93 Cornell L. Rev. 329 (2007).Google Scholar

110 Section 1A(1)(b).Google Scholar

111 See Scott, Rosamund, Reconsidering “Wrongful Life” in England after Thirty Years: Legislative Mistakes and Unjustifiable Anomalies, 72 Cambridge L.J. 118–25 (2013).Google Scholar

112 McKay and Another v Essex Area Health Authority [1982] 1166 (QB); [1982] 2 All ER 771 (CA).Google Scholar

113 Section 1A(1)(b).Google Scholar

114 Tur, supra note 44, at 121.Google Scholar

115 Tur, supra note 44, at 126.Google Scholar

116 HR 18 Maart 2005, NJ 2006, 606 m.nt. JBMV (Baby Kelly).Google Scholar

117 Scott, supra note 111, at 131.Google Scholar

118 Cour de cassation [Cass.] [Supreme Court for Judicial Matters] ass. plen., Nov. 17, 2000, (Perruche), JCP 2000, II, 10438, 2293. This case law was overturned by the Patients' Rights and Quality of Care Act (2002).Google Scholar

119 Thomas, supra note 41, at 165–66.Google Scholar

120 Id. Google Scholar

121 Fuller, supra note 60, at 384.Google Scholar

122 See International, Amnesty, supra note 27.Google Scholar

123 Id. Google Scholar

124 Naffine, supra note 36, at 641.Google Scholar

125 Id. at 642.Google Scholar

126 P.-L. Chau & Jonathan Herring, Defining, Assigning and Designing Sex, 16 Int'l J. L., Pol'y & the Fam. 358 (2002).Google Scholar

127 For Germany, see Bundesverfassungsgericht [BVerfG] [Federal Constitutional Court], Jan. 11, 2011, 1 BvR 3295/07, Neue Juristische Wochenschrift [NJW] 909, paras. 70–71; for the Netherlands, see Transgenderwet 18 Dec. 2013 Stb. 2013.Google Scholar

128 See Saner, E., ‘Europe's Terrible Trans Rights Record: Will Denmark's New Law Spark Change?‘ The Guardian (Sept. 1. 2014), http://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2014/sep/01/europe-terrible-trans-rights-record-denmark-new-law.Google Scholar

129 Kelsen, supra note 59, at 170.Google Scholar

130 Supiot, supra note 9, at 21; Paul Ricoeur, Who Is the Subject of Rights?, in The Just 9–10 (Paul Ricoeur, 2000).Google Scholar

131 In that sense, see Supiot, id., at 20–21.Google Scholar

132 Kelsen, supra note 59, 170.Google Scholar

133 Id. at 170–71.Google Scholar

134 Hannah Arendt, Men in Dark Times 72 (1968).Google Scholar

135 Agamben, supra note 62, at 53.Google Scholar

136 Julian Savulescu & Dominic Wilkinson, Death Fiction and Taking Organs from the Living, Practical Ethics (Oct. 24, 2008), http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2008/10/death-fiction-and-taking-organs-from-the-living; Alireza Bagheri, Individual choice in the definition of death, J. L. Med. Ethics 33: 146–49 (2007).Google Scholar

137 For a recent overview and analysis of this discussion, see Ergas, Yasmine, Babies without Borders: Human Rights, Human Dignity, and the Regulation of International Commercial Surrogacy, 27 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 138 (2013).Google Scholar

138 For further reflection on the symbolic functions of legal personality, see Supiot, supra note 9; Pessers, supra note 9. For more general reflection on the symbolic functions of law in biomedical regulation, see Symbolic Legislation Theory and Developments in Biolaw (Bart van Klink, Britta van Beers & Lonneke Poort eds., 2016 and Britta van Beers, Is Europe ‘Giving in to Baby Markets‘? Reproductive Tourism in Europe and the Gradual Erosion of Existing Legal Limits to Reproductive Markets, Med. L. Rev. 23(1), 103–34 (2015).Google Scholar

139 James Boyle, Is Subjectivity Possible? The Postmodern Subject in Legal Theory, 62 Colo. L. Rev. 523 (1991).Google Scholar

140 See Deleuze, Gilles, The Logic of Sense 257 (1990). Deleuze gives the following definition of simulacrum: Google Scholar

If we say of the simulacrum that it is a copy of a copy, an infinitely degraded icon, an infinitely loose resemblance, we then miss the essential, that is, the difference in nature between simulacrum and copy …. The copy is an image endowed with resemblance, the simulacrum is an image without resemblance. Id. Google Scholar