Death and legal personality from a cross-disciplinary perspective

Abstract

Death has always been an insoluble legal dilemma. It has never been given a legal definition. Nonetheless, such competence is left to the medical science which is better furnished to establish death. The law only covers the property and non-property effects of death. The immediate consequence of death is the termination of legal personality if it is certified by a medico-legal decision. Sometimes death is surrounded by uncertainty related to the absence or disappearance of somebody. In those cases, death cannot terminate legal personality. However, precautionary measures are taken pending the pronunciation of the death to end legal personality. The classic conception of death putting an end to legal personality is often called into question if we enquiry the will of the deceased and his moral rights which are not in line with the automatic termination of legal personality. This question is becoming more and more remarkable with the appearance of digital identity, which overthrow the issue of death that is difficult to implement in the digital scale. Physical death is difficult to duplicate in the digital world. This study aims to show that death cannot always systematically put an end to legal personality. Some duties continue to produce their effects for better or for worse.

This question is becoming more and more remarkable with the appearance of digital identity, which overthrow the issue of death that is difficult to implement in the digital scale. Physical death is difficult to duplicate in the digital world. This study aims to show that death cannot always systematically put an end to legal personality. Some duties continue to produce their effects for better or for worse.