Legal Identity Part II - Human Beings, The People, Natural & Legal Persons
Unraveling the Truth and Reality of the Legal Identity
Memorandum of Law I - Legal Distinctions between Human Beings, The People,
Natural Persons, and Legal Persons
I. ISSUE PRESENTED
This memorandum analyzes the legal distinctions between four foundational concepts: Human Beings, The People, Natural Persons, and Legal Persons. It defines each term according to primary and secondary legal authorities and delineates the specific rights, duties, and obligations associated with each classification.
II. ANALYSIS
A. The People
- Definition: “The People” is a collective political body referenced in the U.S. Constitution, representing the citizenry as the sovereign source of governmental authority and the ultimate beneficiary of constitutional protections. This term signifies the body politic in its collective capacity.
- Authority: The term is foundational to the structure of American government. The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution states, “We the People of the United States… do ordain and establish this Constitution.” The First, Second, Fourth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments specifically reserve or guarantee rights to “the people.”
- Rights, Duties, and Obligations:
- Rights: “The People” possess collective, sovereign political rights, including the right to alter or abolish their government (Declaration of Independence premise), the right to keep and bear arms (U.S. Const. amend. II), and the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures (U.S. Const. amend. IV).
- Duties: The primary duty of the People is to uphold and abide by the Constitution they have ordained. See Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 176 (1803) (noting the Constitution is a “superior, paramount law”).
- Obligations: The collective obligation is to participate in the republican form of government through mechanisms like voting and jury service.
B. Human Beings
- Definition: A “Human Being” is a biological and ontological classification referring to a living member of the species Homo sapiens. This is a pre-legal, factual status existing independent of any legal system. See Skinner v. Oklahoma ex rel. Williamson, 316 U.S. 535, 541 (1942) (referring to “basic civil rights of man” grounded in human existence).
- Authority: This term is rooted in natural law philosophy and biology, not statutory definition. The law operates upon human beings but does not create them.
- Rights, Duties, and Obligations:
- As a purely biological entity, a “human being” possesses no inherent legal rights, duties, or obligations. These are creations of a legal system conferred upon a legal personhood construct. The legal significance of being a human being is that it is the universal prerequisite for being recognized as a Natural Person, though the two are not legally synonymous.
C. Natural Persons
- Definition: A “Natural Person” is the legal construct through which a human being is granted full legal identity and capacity. It is the status of being a “person” in the eyes of the law. See Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019), “natural person” (“A human being, as distinguished from an artificial person created by law.”). This status attaches at birth and ceases at death. See 1 Am. Jur. 2d Actions § 34.
- Authority: The 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause establishes that “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States… are citizens,” cementing the presumption that human beings are natural persons. See also Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393, 407-12 (1856) (demonstrating the dire legal consequences when this presumption is violated).
- Rights, Duties, and Obligations:
- Rights: Natural persons are the primary beneficiaries of constitutional protections, including the full spectrum of rights in the Bill of Rights (e.g., U.S. Const. amends. I, IV, V). They possess full civil capacity to contract, own property, and sue. These rights are inherent to their status.
- Duties: Obligation to adhere to all criminal statutes (e.g., state penal codes) and to observe the general duty of care owed to others in society. See Restatement (Second) of Torts § 282.
- Obligations: Personal and unlimited liability for contractual debts, tax liabilities (26 U.S.C.), and civil judgments. Liability is direct and extends to personal assets.
D. Legal Persons (Artificial/Juristic Persons)
- Definition: A “Legal Person” is a non-human entity that the law recognizes as having a legal identity separate from its constituent members. It is a creation of statute, a “legal fiction.” See Black’s Law Dictionary, “Artificial Person”; “Juristic Person.” Examples include corporations, LLCs, and municipalities.
- Authority: Created by an affirmative act of law, such as filing Articles of Incorporation pursuant to state statute (e.g., Del. Code Ann. tit. 8, § 101).
- Rights, Duties, and Obligations:
- Rights: Rights are derivative and statutory, not inherent. Includes capacity to sue, be sued, hold property, and contract. Possesses some constitutional rights (e.g.., First Amendment commercial speech, Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310 (2010)), but not others (e.g.., Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, Hale v. Henkel, 201 U.S. 43, 74 (1906)).
- Duties: Compliance with all applicable statutes and regulations (e.g., SEC, EPA).
- Obligations: Vicarious liability for torts of agents (respondeat superior). The primary feature is limited liability; the entity is liable for its debts, but the natural persons behind it (shareholders) are generally shielded. This “corporate veil” is the central distinction from a natural person. See Walkovszky v. Carlton, 18 N.Y.2d 414 (1966).
III. HIERARCHICAL RELATIONSHIP AND DISTINCTIONS
The relationship between these concepts is sequential and conditional:
- Human Being is the biological substrate.
- Natural Person is the legal status conferred by the state upon that human being, granting them full legal capacity.
- The People is the collective political embodiment of the citizenry, composed of natural persons.
- Legal Person is an artificial creation of the state, granted a limited subset of legal capacities for specific purposes (e.g., commerce).
|
Concept |
Origin |
Rights |
Liability |
Constitutional Standing |
|
The People |
Political Sovereign |
Collective, Political |
N/A |
Ultimate Beneficiary |
|
Human Being |
Biological Fact |
None (Pre-legal) |
None |
Prerequisite |
|
Natural Person |
Legal Status |
Inherent, Full |
Unlimited, Personal |
Full Subject |
|
Legal Person |
Legal Fiction |
Derivative, Limited |
Limited, Entity-Level |
Partial Subject |
IV. CONCLUSION
“The People” exists as a political collective with sovereign authority. A “Human Being” is a biological fact requiring legal recognition to participate in the legal system. A “Natural Person” is that recognition, conferring full legal capacity with inherent rights and unlimited liabilities. A “Legal Person” is an artificial entity created by statute with limited, derivative rights and limited liability. The law attaches all substantive rights, duties, and obligations to the constructs of “Natural Person” and “Legal Person,” not directly to the biological “Human Being” or the political body of “The People.”
Memorandum of Law II - Distinction Between Natural Rights and Legal Rights: Foundational Support in Primary and Secondary Law
I. ISSUE PRESENTED
This memorandum outlines the distinction between natural rights and legal (positive) rights and identifies primary and secondary sources of law that support the principle that natural rights form a foundational basis that modern legal systems are constructed to recognize and secure.
II. ANALYSIS
A. Definition of Natural Rights vs. Legal Rights
- Natural Rights (Rights by Nature): Rights that are conceived as universal, inherent, inalienable, and not contingent upon the laws or customs of any particular culture or government. They are deemed to exist independently of and prior to political organization and positive law. They are derived from natural law, reasoned analysis of human nature, or divine authority.
- Key Characteristics: Pre-political, inherent, inalienable, universal.
- Example:
The right to life, the right of self-preservation, the right to liberty.
- Legal Rights (Positive Rights): Rights that are created, recognized, and enforced by the enacted laws of a civil society, its statutes, regulations, and judicial decisions. These rights are contingent upon the existence of a legal system and can be modified or repealed by the governing authority.
- Key Characteristics: Created by government, contingent, alienable, specific to a jurisdiction.
- Example: The right to vote (as defined by statute), the right to a driver’s license, the statutory right to sue for a specific tort.
B. Primary Legal Authority for the Recognition of Natural Rights
The foundational documents of the United States are explicitly built upon the premise of pre-existing natural rights that government is instituted to secure.
- The Declaration of Independence (1776): This is the paramount American political document articulating the natural rights foundation of government.
- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
- "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…"
- Analysis: This establishes that rights (Life, Liberty, pursuit of Happiness) are endowed (inherent, not granted), unalienable (incapable of being taken away or transferred), and exist prior to government. The government’s role is secondary and instrumental: to secure these pre-existing rights.
- The Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
- "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
- Analysis:
This text explicitly acknowledges that the people possess rights beyond those specifically listed (enumerated) in the Constitution. These “retained” rights are a direct reference to the natural rights that pre-existed the formation of the government. The amendment prevents the legal system from denying these unenumerated natural rights simply because they are not written down. See Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 486 (1965) (The Ninth Amendment is “but a truism” that confirms the existence of unenumerated rights retained by the people).
- The Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments:
- Fifth Amendment: “No person shall be… deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…”
- Fourteenth Amendment: “…nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…”
- Analysis: The Supreme Court has interpreted “liberty” in the Due Process Clauses to encompass a broad range of fundamental rights that are “implicit in the concept of ordered liberty” (Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319 (1937)) and “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition” (Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 720-21 (1997)). This doctrine of “substantive due process” is the primary judicial mechanism for identifying and protecting fundamental rights that are not explicitly enumerated in the Constitution’s text—a clear recognition of natural rights principles within the modern legal framework.
C. Secondary Legal Authority Supporting Natural Rights Recognition
- Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019):
- "Natural right." A right that is conceived as part of natural law and that is therefore thought to exist independently of rights created by government or society, such as the right to self-preservation.
- "Unalienable right." A right that cannot be transferred or surrendered.
- These definitions confirm the legal lexicon’s recognition of a category of rights distinct from those created by positive law.
- American Jurisprudence 2d (Am. Jur. 2d):
- 1 Am. Jur. 2d Actions § 34: Discusses the legal capacity to sue and be sued, which attaches to the legal construct of the “natural person,” the vessel through which a human being’s natural rights become legally actionable.
- The treatise’s structure, distinguishing between inherent capacities and statutory creations, implicitly supports the underlying framework of natural rights being recognized and operationalized by the legal system.
- Influential Judicial Philosophy:
- The writings of Supreme Court Justices like James Wilson (a Framer who lectured on natural law) and the jurisprudence of the Natural Law School (exemplified by early American judicial decisions) consistently held that positive law draws its legitimacy from its conformity to a higher natural law. While modern legal positivism dominates, this foundational philosophy is embedded in the nation’s constitutional structure.
III. CONCLUSION
Natural rights and legal rights are distinct in origin and nature. Natural rights are inherent and pre-political, while legal rights are created by government. The modern American legal system is not, however, a purely positivist system. It is explicitly founded upon the principle articulated in the Declaration of Independence: that natural rights exist and the primary purpose of government and its positive laws is to recognize, secure, and protect these pre-existing rights. This principle is given legal force through the Ninth Amendment’s reservation of unenumerated rights and the Due Process Clauses’ protection of fundamental liberty, demonstrating that natural rights form the normative foundation that the modern legal system is bound to uphold.
Q&A
Q: Is it a legal fact that ‘legal rights’ in the system, as a ‘natural person’, attach as a person to a ‘human being’ upon registration into the legal system via birth or naturalization?
A: No.
Legal rights attach to the legal construct of the “Natural Person.” The state recognizes a “human being” and confers upon it the status of “Natural Person,” granting it legal capacity. The registration of birth or naturalization is the administrative act that formally documents this state recognition. The rights attach to the legal status, not directly to the biological entity.
Q: What is this legal status called in technical legal terms that is cognizable by government?
A: “Personhood” or “Legal Personhood.”
This is the status of being a subject of rights and duties, a legal entity recognized as capable of exercising legal rights and being subject to legal obligations. It is this specific status that is cognizable by the government.
Q: Can one legally divest themselves of "Legal Personhood"?
A: No.
Legal personhood is the inherent status through which a human being interacts with the legal system. There is no statutory or common law procedure for a living human being to divest this status. Attempts to do so, often through “sovereign citizen” or similar theories, are uniformly rejected by courts. The status persists from birth registration or naturalization until death.
One can forfeit certain rights through criminal conviction or incapacitation, but the underlying legal personhood remains.
Q: Since government is created by the People, do human rights supersede legal rights?
A: Yes.
Human rights, understood as natural or unalienable rights, are the antecedent foundation upon which government is instituted. Legal rights are the positive, statutory implementation and protection of those pre-existing human rights.
The Declaration of Independence establishes this hierarchy: government’s purpose is to secure pre-existing rights. Therefore, when a conflict arises, the legitimacy of the legal right is judged by its conformity to the superior human right it is meant to secure. Legal rights are derivative and instrumental; human rights are foundational.
List of Human Rights
|
Genral: Life Liberty Pursuit of Happiness Self-Preservation Self-Defense Conscience Thought Expression (Speech) Private Property Arms (Defense) Privacy Autonomy Travel Association Worship Reputation Parental Rights Marriage Procreation Inheritance Contract Petition Assembly Jury Service Due Process of Law Equal Protection Access to Courts Bodily Integrity Refuse Medical Treatment Fair Trial Counsel Be Informed of Accusations Confront Accusers Compel Witnesses Be Free from Ex Post Facto Laws Be Free from Bills of Attainder Be Free from Cruel/Unusual Punishment Be Free from Involuntary Servitude Enjoy the Fruits of One’s Labor Security of Home and Person A Marine and Sublunary Right (Property) Receive Justice Resist Oppression Alter or Abolish Government Consent to Government Enjoy Safety and Happiness Commerce Emigration Reputation (Good Name) Defend One’s Rights in Court Presumption of Innocence |
Familial: Marriage (Foundational) Procreation Parental Rights (Custody, Care, Control) Rearing of Children (Education, Upbringing) Filial Association (Right of Family Relationship) Family Integrity (Preservation of Family Unit) Grandparental Association (in some jurisdictions) Ancestral Worship/Heritage (Cultural) Inheritance (Right to Receive) Testamentary Freedom (Right to Bequeath) Provide a Home Family Privacy (Domestic Autonomy) Religious Upbringing of Children Discipline of Children (within reason) Make Medical Decisions for Children Consent to Marriage of Minor Children Seek Redress for Harm to Family Member Determine Family Residence Pass Citizenship to Children Manage Child’s Property Protect Child from State Intrusion Appoint Guardian for Children Request Family Reunification (Immigration context) Enjoy Consortium (Spousal) Receive Support (Spousal, Child) Claim Wrongful Death of Family Member Bury and Dispose of Deceased Family Members Preserve Family Reputation Transmit Family Name Observe Family Traditions and Culture Maintain Familial Correspondence Refuse Testimony Against Spouse Claim Privileged Marital Communications Determine End-of-Life Care for Family Consent to Adoption (or refuse) Protect Familial Genetic Information Object to Child’s Medical Treatment Direct Child’s Religious Instruction Choose Child’s Associates/Community Respect for Family Life (ECHR Art. 8 derivative) Presumption of Parental Fitness Right to Family in Immigration/Asylum Protection from Arbitrary Family Separation Right to a Legitimate Family (paternity/maternity) Right to Marry and Found a Family (UDHR Art. 16) Parental Right to Work to Support Family Familial Right to Petition Government Right to Familial Privacy in the Home Right to Familial Reputation and Honor Right to Transmit Family Property |
Property: Possession Use Enjoyment Disposition (Sell) Transfer (Gift) Devise (Bequeath) Exclude Others Destroy Alter/Improve Access Quiet Enjoyment Fruits/Profits (Rent, Dividends) Security from Takings (Just Compensation) Security from Searches Defend (Self-Help, Reasonable Force) Recover (Replevin, Ejectment) Encumber (Mortgage, Lien) Lease/License Dedicate Abandon Fixture Attachment Support (Lateral, Subjacent) Light and Air (Ancient Lights) Water (Riparian Rights) Mineral Rights Timber Rights Air Rights Subsurface Rights Fishing/Hunting Rights Grazing Rights Accession (Right to Increase) Specification (Right to Create New Property) Confusion (Commingled Goods) Treasure Trove Adverse Possession (in certain conditions) Testamentary Freedom Inheritance Enjoyment Free from Nuisance Waste (Prevention of) Beneficial Use Beneficial Enjoyment Alienability Contract Freedom (Re: Property) Exclude Government (Without Due Process) Enjoy Safely Repair Replace Protect from Forfeiture (Without Due Process) Right to Compensation for Damages (Trespass) |
Q: If all the above rights supersede the Constitution and all laws are made in pursuance thereof, what is the procedure to apply the above human rights as superior to the statutory legal personhood rights?
A: The procedure to assert pre-existing human rights as superior to conflicting statutory law is accomplished through constitutional litigation in Article III courts.
The primary mechanism is a legal challenge alleging a violation of a fundamental right protected by the Constitution’s substantive due process clauses (5th and 14th Amendments) or other enumerated protections. A plaintiff must:
- File suit against the government actor enforcing the statute
- Demonstrate the statute infringes upon a fundamental right “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition” (Washington v. Glucksberg)
- Request judicial review under strict scrutiny, the highest standard, requiring the government to prove the law is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling state interest
If the court finds the statute violates a fundamental right, it will issue an injunction against enforcement and declare the law unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause (Article VI), nullifying the conflicting statutory provision. This process operationalizes the hierarchy where natural rights supersede positive law.
Robert's note: The bottom line is we MUST...it is IMPERATIVE...for the People to understand due process and raise due process defenses right from the start of ANY legal matter. Preemptive affidavit recording (private records) and both constructive and actual notice are essential.
~Robert Michael with AI
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