THE PERSON AND THE PERSONHOOD FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE U. S. AMERICAN DOCTRINE

Abstract

The mode of solving legal issues within the Anglo-American legal culture has been usually based upon human experience and pragmatic reasoning. This is also the way for the U. S. American legal doctrine to approach the concept of person in law as the basic legal institution. I tend to argue that such approach should be seen as incorrect since fundamental legal concepts – such as a person in law – should not be constructed upon practical human experience. I would claim that this intentionally “anti-theoretical” attitude is the reason why the Anglo-American legal terminology applicable to the concept of person appears unclear. It is difficult to identify differences between “legal entity” and “legal person” as well as the relation and/or difference between terms “person” and “personhood