Legal entity

A legal entity is a legal construct through which the law allows a group of natural persons to act as if they were a single person for certain purposes.  The most common purposes are lawsuits, property ownership, and contracts.

A legal entity is not always something else than the natural persons of which it is composed as one can see with a company or corporation.

Some examples of legal entities include:
 companies
 cooperatives (co-ops)
 corporations
 municipalities
 natural persons
 political parties
 sovereigns
 states
 temples, in some legal systems, have separate legal personalityWilliams v The Shipping Corporation of India (US District Court, Eastern District Virginia), 10 March 1980, 63 ILR 363
 trade unions
 ship or vessel

Limitations
There are limitations to the legal recognition of artificial persons.  Legal entities cannot marry, they cannot vote or hold public office, and in most jurisdictions there are certain positions which they cannot occupy.These restrictions vary from country to country.  Some countries do not permit a corporate entity to be a director or a liquidator while others do.  The extent to which a legal entity can commit a crime varies from country to country.  Certain countries prohibit a legal entity from holding human rights; other countries permit artificial persons to enjoy certain protections from the state that are traditionally described as human rights.Most commonly in the area of taxation and in relation to search warrants.

examples of legal entities are 
- sole traders
-partnerships
- trusts
- private and public company

Recently, in India, a company despite being artificial person has got court stay, from High Court Jaipur Bench against an employee seeking justice in labour court.

Related pages
 Company

Footnotes

Category:Legal terms