Natural and Juridical Persons Distinguished, in the Light of the Civil Transactions Law and the Provisions of the Egyptian Civil Code
The provisions on personality in the Civil Transactions Law of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia lie close to those of the Egyptian Civil Code. In both, personality divides into two: the natural person and the juridical person.
One: The natural person.
The natural personality of a human being begins on their being born alive and ends at death. A person must be born alive, and the birth must be complete, for them to hold a personality capable of bearing rights and performing obligations — or more precisely, to hold the capacity of obligation. By capacity of obligation is meant a person's fitness to hold rights and to owe duties. This capacity attaches to a person throughout the period in which the law recognises their existence, so long as there are legal provisions governing that existence. Thus the capacity of obligation attaches to a human being before birth: an unborn child may hold rights and owe obligations. It inherits; it holds a right in what is bequeathed or given to it; and it is bound by the maintenance of one whose maintenance falls to it. All this on condition that it is born alive. Should it be born dead, its personality is treated as never having existed from the time it was considered a conceived child. The capacity of obligation, however, differs from the capacity of performance.
The capacity of performance means a person's ability to express their own will in a manner producing legal effects in their favour. It is a quality a person acquires once the conditions are met that make them fit to exercise all their rights themselves, by concluding the various legal acts.
This capacity requires full discernment and will. It may happen that a person holds the capacity of obligation, and so enjoys a right, without holding the capacity of performance — that is, without being able to exercise that right themselves. In such a case the will of their representative stands in place of their own, the legal effect attaching to the person represented. The provisions on capacity are of public order and may not be departed from or altered. The various legislations have laid down that "no one may surrender their capacity nor alter its provisions" (Article 48 of the Egyptian Civil Code; Article 16 of the Civil Transactions Law). No one may surrender the capacity of obligation or the capacity of performance, nor restrict it, save to the extent that does not conflict with public order. In this lies the protection of a person from themselves and from others. A person may not bind themselves in perpetuity, nor restrict their freedom to work — undertaking, for instance, not to practise a given trade for life — as the explanatory memorandum to the Egyptian Civil Code laid down in its provisions.
The states of capacity of the natural person.
A natural person may be of full capacity, of deficient capacity, or of none. From birth until the age of seven a person is without capacity. From seven until eighteen they are of deficient discernment, and so hold a deficient capacity. Capacity is complete on reaching majority — eighteen Hijri years under the Civil Transactions Law, and twenty-one Gregorian years under the Egyptian Civil Code — so long as the person is in possession of their mental faculties.
One: Full capacity. The provisions on full capacity are laid down in Article 12 of the Civil Transactions Law and Article 44 of the Egyptian Civil Code. A person of full capacity is one who:
- Has reached majority: twenty-one complete Gregorian years under the Egyptian Civil Code, or eighteen complete Hijri years under the Civil Transactions Law of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
- Is in possession of their mental faculties.
- Is not under interdiction. Interdiction is imposed or lifted only by judicial decision.
Two: Deficient capacity.
Capacity is deficient in two cases:
1. Any person who has reached the age of discernment but not the age of majority. The age of discernment is seven years; whoever reaches it is treated as discerning. Having reached the age of discernment but not that of majority, they are treated as of deficient capacity. It has been laid down that "a child without discernment has no right to dispose of their property, and all their dispositions are void". The will of a child without discernment concludes no disposition, even one to their benefit.
As for the discerning child, they may conclude dispositions of pure benefit; dispositions of pure detriment, by contrast, are void; and dispositions falling between benefit and detriment are voidable. In principle it is the guardian or the testamentary guardian who concludes such dispositions on the child's behalf, within the authority conferred on them. Should they ratify the voidable disposition, or should the court ratify it, or the child on reaching majority, the right to plead avoidance falls away and the disposition is treated as valid according to the circumstances and in accordance with the law.2. Any person who has reached majority but is prodigal or of defective judgment.