Legally significant thing
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Legal Entities of the World™
A spotter’s guide to corporate wildlife
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Res Legis
/reɪz ˈlɛʤɪz/ (n.)
1. A being assigned rational agency and personal responsibility by the legal system. A person has legal personality, as does a corporation and, in some jurisdictions, a trust, but a tree does not. Nor does a polar bear, a portfolio of assets, a partnership or an individual branch of a corporation.
2. An element having legal significance divorced from the physical substrate in which it is typically embedded. A right or obligation in the abstract, as opposed to the contract in which it is written. A debt, as opposed to the promissory instrument which represents it upon this mortal rock.
The JC made “res legis” up, so if you use it amongst the cognoscenti, do so with poise, confidence and bluster. If enough people do this, it will become a thing.