'Capacity’ of Natural Person

Welcome back to the Legal English Series! Last time we introduced ‘natural person’ and ‘juridical person’, which are the subjects of rights in the Civil Code, and today we will take a closer look at the natural person and the three ‘capacities’ associated with it!

1.  Legal capacity 

• The ability to enjoy rights and assume obligations.

• Relevant laws and regulations：
  § 6 ( note 1)
  The legal capacity of a person commences from the moment of live birth and terminates at death.

2.     Capacity to make juridical acts

• The ability or capacity to perform legal acts independently and effectively.

• Relevant laws and regulations：

§ 7
The minor, who has not reached their seventh year of age, has no capacity to make juridical acts.

The minor, who is over seven years of age, has a limited capacity to make juridical acts.

3.      Capacity for civil conduct 

• The ability to assume civil responsibility for a violation of the law.

• Relevant laws and regulations：

§ 187

A person of no capacity or limited in capacity to make juridical acts, who has wrongfully damaged the rights of another, shall be jointly liable with his guardian for any injury arising therefrom if he is capable of discernment at the time of committing such an act. If he is incapable of discernment at the time of committing the act, his guardian alone shall be liable for such injury.

• Note 1: In legal documents, ‘§’（法條符號） stands for ‘Section,’ which is a block that can contain multiple natural paragraphs or be used as a ‘Paragraph.’ 

Now, let's try practicing making sentences!

1. Even though the fetus has not yet been born, unless it is a stillbirth, it will acquire legal capacity beforehand.

2. Betty, who is now 18 years old, has full capacity to make juridical acts and can independently purchase a car from the car dealer.

3. Shelly, being an elementary school student, is expected to understand that 'hitting and kicking can cause harm to others' according to common sense. Therefore, the court determines that Shelly had the capacity to recognize the situation when harming Candy, making Shelly have capacity for civil conduct and  jointly liable with her guardian for compensating Candy. 

Congratulations on learning more about your legal abilities and corresponding rights and obligations! See you next Thursday in our Legal English series! Bye ~~