Legal Capacity Measure

A Legal Capacity Measure is an agent capacity measure of the extent to which an agent has legal personhood and legal personality, which grants them the recognized ability to take legally significant actions (such as making binding agreements and voting).

• Context:
  • It can be used by lawyers, judges, or medical professionals to assess whether an individual is legally capable of making independent decisions.
  • It can be applied in various legal contexts, including estate planning, guardianship proceedings, and contract law.
  • It can rely on standardized psychological tests, interviews, medical evaluations, or a combination of these tools.
  • It can be a critical part of determining an individual's ability to participate in legal proceedings or execute legal documents.
  • …
• Example(s):
  • A Cognitive Legal CapacityAssessment Tool used to evaluate a senior citizen's ability to manage their finances and make wills.
  • An Legal Capacity Evaluation Process conducted by a court to assess a minor's ability to make decisions related to medical treatment.
  • A comprehensive Legal Capacity Psychiatric Evaluation to determine an individual's competency to stand trial.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • A Physical Health Assessment, not specifically focused on cognitive or legal capacity.
  • A Job Performance Evaluation, unrelated to legal decision-making ability.
• See: Legal Competence, Mental Capacity, Cognitive Assessment, Legal Guardianship, Contractual Capacity.

---

---

References

2023

• (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacity_(law) Retrieved:2023-8-3.
  • Legal capacity is a quality denoting either the legal aptitude of a person to have rights and liabilities (in this sense also called transaction capacity), or altogether the personhood itself in regard to an entity other than a natural person (in this sense also called legal personality).

2022

• ...
  • QUOTE: Capacity refers to the ability to make a rational decision based upon all relevant facts and considerations. Some common usages of the term “capacity” in a legal sense include:
    • In the context of criminal law, the term “capacity” means that the defendant must have the ability to understand the wrongfulness of their actions.
    • In the context of contract law, the term “capacity” denotes a person's ability to satisfy the elements required for someone to enter binding contracts. For example, capacity rules often require a person to have reached a minimum age and to be of sound mind. A contract signed by a person lacking capacity may be void or voidable.
    • In the context of wills, the maker of a will must have testamentary capacity. Cases such as this one from the D.C. Court of Appeals, explain that “’testamentary capacity’ is the mental state that a person must possess at the time of making a will in order for the will to be valid.”
  • [Last updated in March of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team]

2015

• (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/capacity_(law) Retrieved:2015-7-6.
  • The capacity of natural and juridical persons, and legal persons in general, determines whether they may make binding amendments to their rights, duties and obligations, such as getting married or merging, entering into contracts, making gifts, or writing a valid will. Capacity is an aspect of status and both are defined by a person's personal law:
    • for natural persons, the law of domicile or lex domicilii in common law jurisdictions, and either the law of nationality or lex patriae, or of habitual residence in civil law states;
    • for juridical persons, the law of the place of incorporation, the lex incorporationis for companies while other forms of business entity derive their capacity either from the law of the place in which they were formed or the laws of the states in which they establish a presence for trading purposes depending on the nature of the entity and the transactions entered into.
  • When the law limits or bars a person from engaging in specified activities, any agreements or contracts to do so are either voidable or void for incapacity. Sometimes such legal incapacity is referred to as incompetence. For comparison, see Competence (law).

2022

• (Koyama, 2022) ⇒ M Koyama. (2022). “Legal Capacity." papers.ssrn.com
  • QUOTE: “… the concept of legal capacity. First, I discuss the relationship between legal capacity and the more widely used concept of the rule of law. I suggest that one benefit of legal capacity as a …”
  • NOTE: It discusses the relationship between legal capacity and the rule of law, suggesting benefits of using legal capacity as a concept.

2017

• (De Bhailís & Flynn, 2017) ⇒ C De Bhailís, E Flynn. (2017). “Recognising Legal Capacity: Commentary and Analysis of Article 12 CRPD." In: International Journal of Law in Context, cambridge.org
  • QUOTE: “… treaties to set out a right to legal capacity on an equal basis with others for persons with disabilities. The right to legal capacity it artic

2015

• (Series, 2015) ⇒ L Series. (2015). “Relationships, Autonomy and Legal Capacity: Mental Capacity and Support Paradigms." In: International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, Elsevier
  • QUOTE: “… legal capacity. Recent scholarship on both ‘mental capacity’ and CRPD approaches to legal capacity has … the differences between these approaches to legal capacity. I argue that the …”
  • NOTE: It explores the differences between mental capacity and CRPD approaches to legal capacity, presenting an argument for reevaluation.

2011

• (Lewis, 2011) ⇒ O Lewis. (2011). “Advancing Legal Capacity Jurisprudence." In: European Human Rights Law Review, academia.edu
  • QUOTE: “… of the right to legal capacity of people with disabilities. It places legal capacity within an … The author provides a review of European jurisprudence in the area of legal capacity and …”
  • NOTE: It provides a comprehensive review of European jurisprudence on the right to legal capacity for people with disabilities.

2009

• (Busch et al., 2009) ⇒ ML Busch, E Reinhardt, G Shaffer. (2009). “Does Legal Capacity Matter? A Survey of WTO Members." In: World Trade Review, cambridge.org
  • QUOTE: “… are more endowed with legal capacity than poorer ones. … legal capacity, we designed and administered a survey to all WTO Members. We then constructed an index of legal capacity …”
  • NOTE: It investigates the role of legal capacity in richer and poorer countries among WTO members and constructs an index to measure it.

---