Moral person

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A moral person is an association of persons that is recognized by law and is not a natural person .

In contrast to legal persons ( corporations ), moral persons also include groups of persons that do not have to be expressly approved as such by a legal community (e.g. the state ) (e.g. the family or the state itself) ) or such associations of persons that derive their existence from a supranational source (e.g. churches and similar religious and permanent associations).

Catholic canon law

In Catholic canon law one speaks in Latin of a "persona moralis" (moral person).

Before the Codex iuris canonici (CIC) 1983, this expression stood generally for the legal person .

Instead of “persona moralis”, the CIC now uses the cc. 113 ff. CIC the expression "persona juridica" (legal person). The legal persons are for the Latin Church in the cc. § 113 § 2 - 123 CIC regulated.

Deviating from this general terminology, c. 113 § 1 CIC the Catholic Church and the Apostolic See continue to be “persona moralis”.

This is to express terminologically that (according to its own self-understanding) the Catholic Church (and the Apostolic See) "have the character of a moral person on the basis of divine ordinance" (c. 113 § 1 CIC).

But that does not change the fact that the Catholic Church and the Apostolic See are legal persons (in the broader (systematic) sense).

Secular law

Prussian ALR
The ALR 1794 used the expression "moral person":

"§. 81. Corporations and commons represent a moral person in the business of civil life. "

- ALR, Zweyter Part. 6th title. § 81

Austrian and Liechtenstein ABGB
The term moral person is also used in the Austrian ABGB (öABGB) and in the Liechtenstein ABGB (FL-ABGB). In Sections 26, 27 and 529 of the Austrian ABGB and Sections 26 and 27 of the FL-ABGB, the term is applied in a restrictive sense to permitted societies and communities. In § 1454 öABGB and FL-ABGB reference is made to “churches, parishes and other moral bodies”, against which a prescription and limitation are only possible to a limited extent.

Individual questions

Order of Malta
The sovereign Order of Malta could also be seen as such a moral person . Since the Order of Malta is a legal person recognized by the Holy See according to Art 4 § 1 of the “Constitution and Codex of the Sovereign Knight and Hospital Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta”, the restriction according to Can. 120 - § 1 CIC take effect, whereby the Roman Catholic competent authority could legitimately repeal this order. Against this , however, is the qualification of the Order of Malta as a recognized subject of international law .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. The family originates e.g. B. by establishing a house, living, economic and gender community, often with the aim of raising children together (definition disputed!).
  2. ↑ Under international law, a state arises according to the current definition through the proclamation itself (see founding a state ) if a state territory , state people and state authority is present ( three-element theory ) by Georg Jellinek . Recognition by other states or an international organization is generally not required for this.
  3. ^ Alfred Rinnerthaler: Persona moralis . In: Stephan Haering , Heribert Schmitz (Theologe, 1929) : Lexicon of Canon Law . Freiburg i. Br., Herder, 2004, ISBN 3-451-28522-3 , Sp. 737: until 1983 "Guiding principle for the legal person par excellence"
  4. opinioiuris.de
  5. From § 1472 öABGB and § 1472 FL-ABGB, to which the § 1454 öABGB and FL-ABGB refer, it cannot be specifically derived that “moral bodies” in the sense of the ABGB are only legal persons ( corporations ).