What is the legal personality of citizens? By definition, this is a legal property. It is typical for individuals who are citizens of the Russian Federation and foreigners, as well as those who are not endowed with the citizenship of any country. Next, we consider the features of this concept that are characteristic of subjects of relations defined for different branches of the Russian legal system, its main constituent elements, as well as characteristics and main problems regarding it, encountered in the affairs of modern lawyers.
Terminology
The legal personality of citizens is a concept that is widely used in the modern legal system. It is a harmonious combination of legal capacity and legal capacity, as well as transaction capacity and tort, as components of the second element.
By its nature, legal personality is a certain social and legal property of individuals. Moreover, it is worth noting that this concept has two equal sides: legal and public. As for the first, its peculiarity lies in the fact that a certain set of features of subjects of law should be fixed in specific norms of a legal nature. Speaking about the social side of the concept under consideration, it should be noted that the signs that are granted to the subjects of law are not formed by the legislator, but are gradually dictated by the laws of development of society, its needs, and also the course of life itself.
But what are the features of the concept of legal personality of citizens, as well as its individual components?
Legal capacity
Speaking of legal capacity, it is certainly worth noting that it is enshrined in the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Article 17), which states that this feature is characteristic not only of Russian citizens, but also of all other categories of persons (without citizenship, foreigners), regardless of which either factors.
Legal capacity as part of the legal personality of citizens is a rather broad concept, which provides that a person has the ability to have a set of specific duties and rights. It is important to understand that everyone is equally endowed with legal capacity and not a single person can be limited in it under the influence of any factors, court, contract, law, etc. Also, legal practitioners often emphasize that legal capacity is an inalienable unit.
Some of the works of specialists in the field of jurisprudence note that at present the legal personality of citizens is the presence in the state legislative framework of norms providing for the prohibition of entrepreneurial activity in certain circumstances, which, to a certain extent, can be characterized as a kind of limitation of legal capacity, as a component of the concept under consideration.
Legal capacity is a property that any person is endowed with from the moment of his own birth, and loses it with the onset of physical death. This is confirmed by the content of Art. 18 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the content of which notes that it is from the moment of one’s own birth that a person is endowed with a whole range of inalienable rights (to life, to choose a place of residence, to create legal entities, to acquire property, etc.) It is on the basis of the availability of legal capacity of a person from the moment of his birth in the modern legislation of the Russian Federation that the norm stipulates the need to register the facts of the birth and death of a person (Article 47 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).
Legal capacity
When considering the legal personality of citizens and the legal status of citizens, it is imperative to pay attention to legal capacity as its main component.
Legal capacity is the ability of a certain person to perform those actions, on the basis of which a person has his personal obligations and rights, their change or termination occurs. It is important to understand that legal capacity is a phenomenon that is strictly conditioned by law.
Modern Russian legislation identifies several types of legal capacity that people are endowed with:
- the full, which is vested in all adults, as well as those who legally married or were emancipated before reaching the age of 18;
- partial (from 14 to 18 years old);
- limited, which a person can be endowed only by court order and with good reason (the presence of mental disorders, excessive craving for alcohol abuse, physical disabilities, which creates the situation of the inability to independently perform basic life functions, etc.);
- zero, in which legal capacity is simply absent.
About incapacity
As for the state of complete incapacity, a person can be declared such solely by decision of the court if there are good reasons for this provided for by civil law in force on the territory of the Russian Federation. If we analyze the content of Article 26 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, we can see that it indicates the possibility of the complete deprivation of legal capacity of those persons who have this status in full. Based on this, a certain problem arises in the field of legal personality of citizens, which, de jure, is the lack of the ability to empower those individuals who are between the ages of 14 and 16 and, on the basis of civil law, have this status only in some degrees. However, legal practice shows that at present the de facto court does not pay attention to it and deprives people of 14 to 18 years of age suffering from persistent mental disorders from legal capacity.
It is important to understand that after the recognition of a person as completely incompetent, the obligation to carry out legal actions on behalf of a citizen lies entirely with his guardian, who must be designated in the manner prescribed by Russian law.
Let us further consider the features of legal personality depending on the branch of legal relations in which the person is a member.
Administrative legal personality. What is it?
Speaking about the administrative legal personality of citizens, it should be noted that such is considered the ability to be subjects of administrative law. It is worth considering that this concept can only be applied to individuals.
There is a certain list of circumstances that are of direct importance in determining the scope of the administrative legal personality of citizens. These include:
- age;
- the level of education;
- health status;
- marital status;
- qualifications and stuff.
Depending on the presence or absence of the above factors, the legal personality of an administrative type may be:
- complete (from 18 years);
- partial (from 6 to 14 years old, as well as from 14 to 18 years old);
- limited (can only be indicated by decision of a court of appropriate content).
Modern legislation provides a certain list of rights that should be attributed to the number of those that determine the amount of administrative legal personality. Of their total number, it is worth highlighting the following rights:
- to create associations;
- for joining the civil service;
- the inviolability of the home;
- on freedom of movement;
- to search for information by any available legal means, as well as its subsequent transfer and use;
- to hold rallies and meetings;
- for privacy of correspondence;
- to compensation for harm caused by the state.
Labor personality
Studying the provisions presented by modern legislation in the field of labor, it is worth noting another nuance. The term indicated in the heading is the presence of the ability to enter into a working relationship, as well as those that are closely related to those.
As a general rule, the labor legal personality of a citizen arises from the age of 16, and if the person has a complete general education, from 15. In addition, this opportunity can be provided from the age of 14, but subject to the ease of work, as well as the written consent of parties of custody or parents.
As for the legal capacity of a person, which constitutes a labor legal personality, it is expressed in the presence of certain intellectual and volitional qualities necessary for the performance of a certain work, as well as psychological and physiological ability to work.
In modern legislation, there is also the concept of sectoral legal personality, which is defined as the ability of a person to perform labor duties in a specific professional field. It is important to note that some areas establish a specific list of rather stringent requirements that must be met by all persons applying for posts. Among these, pedagogical and underground workers, as well as chief accountants, can be mentioned.
It is important to note that the termination of the legal personality occurs when a person reaches retirement age.
Constitutional legal personality. What are you talking about?
Speaking about the constitutional legal personality of citizens, it should certainly be noted that the structure of this concept includes not only legal capacity and legal capacity, but also tort. That is, the person’s ability to bear responsibility for actions committed by him.
Constitutional legal capacity comes from the very moment a person is born. It is then that he acquires the first rights. For life, for the protection of dignity and honor, for the determination of nationality and so on. As for the peculiarities of the constitutional legal personality of citizens of the Russian Federation, it is somewhat wider than that established for foreigners. As well as stateless persons. The difference between these categories of people is that Russian citizens have a number of voting rights, which cannot be said of those who do not have a special legal connection with the Russian state.
Civil legal personality. The essence of the concept
Giving a general description of the legal personality of citizens, it is certainly worth highlighting the specifics of the considered status of a person that exists in the field of civil law. It is, for the most part, defined by the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the Civil Code of the state.
First of all, it is worth noting that the concept of civil legal personality of citizens includes such elements as legal capacity and legal capacity. As for the second component, it arises from the moment a person is born and accompanies him throughout his life, until his death, if, in connection with any circumstances, it was not limited in court.
Talking about civil legal capacity, it is necessary to determine that the legislator provides for its following types:
- full (from 18 years old, and at the conclusion of an employment contract or entry into marriage, from 16);
- partial (from 6 to 16 years).
In addition, the legislator notes that in a certain life period (from the moment of birth to 6 years), a person is completely incompetent. It is also worth paying attention to the fact that a citizen’s legal capacity may be limited in court, if there are good reasons (in fact, this most often occurs due to excessive abuse of drugs or alcohol). It is important to note that in circumstances that serve as the basis for limiting the legal capacity of a person and, as a result, the civil legal personality of a citizen, this element can be restored in full. What is also done by court order.
The legal personality of foreign citizens. Features
Speaking about the features, it is certainly worth noting that they have a full list of rights and obligations included in the complex provided for the Russian citizen. The only exception is that persons assigned to the group of foreigners or those who do not have citizenship of any country at all cannot use voting rights (cannot be elected to positions in government bodies and participate in the election of persons to these posts). Moreover, they are not obligated to perform military service in the ranks of the Russian army.
All of the above is fixed at the legislative level, in the content of Article 1196 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
Avoiding Legal Personality Problems
It is important to pay attention to the fact that in the modern world when considering the implementation of legal personality, legal practitioners have to deal with various problems. To avoid these, developers of regulatory acts operating at the federal level should definitely pay attention to the need for some changes. Among the most frequently proposed by experts in the field of jurisprudence, it is worth highlighting:
- the importance of introducing a legal concept of the term "legal personality", which is currently not in the country's regulatory framework;
- definitions of all the components of legal personality, and not just legal capacity and legal capacity (it is important to pay attention to factors of a modifying nature, which are scattered in various industry acts);
- the need to develop a scientific approach to the practical problems of the legal personality of citizens, as well as the implementation of its individual categories.
It is important to understand that following these requirements will help to significantly reduce the list of errors in this area. Moreover, in the case of the systematization of the norms under consideration, the number of disagreements arising regarding the concept of legal personality in practical lawyers will sharply decrease.