Definition of natural person
Further reading
Variously, in jurisprudence, a natural person is a human being, as opposed to an artificial, legal or juristic person, i.e., an organization that the law treats for some purposes as if it were a person distinct from its members or owner. Sometimes the legal situation limits the term by limits on age, psychiatric, medical, nationality attributes, gender, sexual orientation, criminal record, official paperwork, and computer records (which may or may not be accurate).
For example, such legal provisions as Amendment XIX to the United States Constitution, which states a person can not be denied the right to vote based on gender, or Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees equality rights, apply to natural persons only. In many cases fundamental human rights are implicitly granted only to natural persons; for example a corporation cannot hold public office, but it can file a lawsuit.
References:
- Wiktionary. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
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