The South African Law of Persons

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the fundamental concepts of the South African Law of Persons, including legal subjectivity, capacity, minority, mental illness, and domicile.

Law of Persons

The branch of private law that determines which beings are legal subjects, when legal personality begins and ends, what legal status involves, and the factors affecting that status.

Objective Law

A system of norms or rules of conduct posited by competent bodies to regulate relations between community members in a peaceful and just manner.

Subjective Law (Rights)

A network of legal relationships among legal subjects, involving a dual relationship between the bearer, other legal subjects, and the object of the right.

Legal Subject

Any entity recognized by law as having the capacity to have rights, duties, and capacities; also known as a legal person.

Legal Object

An object upon which the law hasn't conferred the capacity to have rights/duties, but in respect of which a legal subject can have rights (e.g., corporeal things, performance, intellectual property).

Natural Person

A human being recognized as a legal subject regardless of age, intellectual, or physical ability.

Juristic Person

An artificial person or association of natural persons (like a company or university) to which the law grants a legal existence independent from its members.

Transformative Constitutionalism

An approach using the Constitution to move South Africa toward a society based on democratic values, social justice, and fundamental human rights by evaluating all law against constitutional values.

Born-Alive Rule

The requirement for legal personality to begin, stating that the child must show signs of life after being completely separated from the mother's body.

Viability

The stage of development where a child is able to exist independently of the mother's body; while debated, it is generally not a requirement for legal personality in SA law.

Nasciturus Fiction

A legal principle where an unborn human being is regarded as having been born at the time of conception whenever it is to their advantage, provided they are subsequently born alive.

Status

A person's 'standing' in the law, determined by all attributes or conditions to which the law attaches consequences.

Legal Capacity

The capacity to have rights and duties, which all human beings possess regardless of personal qualities.

Capacity to Act

The capacity to perform valid juristic acts, such as entering into contracts.

Capacity to Litigate (Locus Standi in Iudicio)

The capacity to appear in court as a party to a lawsuit.

Accountability

The capacity to be held liable for crimes and delicts, dictated by a person's ability to distinguish right from wrong and act accordingly.

Domicile

The place where a person is legally deemed to be constantly present for exercising rights and fulfilling obligations, even if factually absent.

Domicile of Origin

The domicile assigned to a person by law at birth.

Domicile of Choice

A domicile acquired by a person with capacity to act when they are lawfully present at a place with the intention to settle indefinitely.

Infans

A child below the age of seven years who has no capacity to act and is considered completely unaccountable in law.

Minor

A person between the ages of seven and 18 years who has limited capacity to act and usually requires parental or guardian assistance for juristic acts.

Emancipation

A situation where a guardian grants a minor freedom to enter independently into contracts, usually within a particular commercial sphere.

Restitutio in Integrum

An extraordinary remedy that restores the status quo ante, allowing a minor to escape a binding contract that was prejudicial at the time of conclusion.

Prodigal

A person with normal mental ability who recklessly squanders their assets and may be interdicted by the court from managing their own estate.

Insolvency

A status where a person's liabilities exceed their assets, leading to the sequestration of their estate and limitations on their legal standing.

Lucidum Intervallum

A 'lucid interval' during which a mentally ill person is temporarily sane and may perform valid juristic acts.

Curator Bonis

A person appointed by the court to administer the property and financial affairs of someone incapable of doing so themselves.

Curator Personae

A person appointed to make decisions regarding the physical person and day-to-day life of an incapacitated individual.