Civil capacity

Civil legal capacity in the same way as civil capacity, is part of the legal personality. Its value is large enough.

The legal capacity of citizens is nothing more than the abstract (potential) possibility of an individual to incur obligations, and also to have rights. This ability is recognized equally for all citizens. The moment of arising is the birth, the moment of cessation is death. This legal capacity has such properties as inalienability and abstractness. Civil procedural legal capacity provides a guarantee that the interests of the person will be defended in court if necessary.

In some cases, people become legal even before birth. As an example, we can call the situation when a person dies, and his unborn child becomes his heir. Of course, an unborn child does not have rights, but the interests of a possible heir are still protected by law.

Civil capacity and its scope

Article 18 of the Civil Code contains a list of those rights that relate to the concept of civil capacity. This article mentions:

- the right to bequeath or inherit property;

- the right to engage in entrepreneurial activities (referring to activities not prohibited by law);

- the right to own property;

- the right to open any legal entities;

- the right to make all kinds of transactions;

- have copyrights ;

- have a place of residence and so on.

The list is not exhaustive - citizens may also have rights not specified in the article at all.

Members of the society exercise, and also acquire duties and rights under their own name. It is through names that individualization takes place. Use of other names is prohibited. However, it is worth considering that everyone has the right to use a pseudonym - that is, a fictitious name. In exceptional cases, it is allowed not to disclose either a fictional or a real name. Civil legal capacity will not change even if a person replaces the name that was given to him at birth. When you change it, the old duties are also preserved. There is also a new obligation - reporting creditors information regarding changes in passport data.

What is the civil capacity of citizens of other countries

It is determined by the laws of the country from which the particular person arrived. If a person, being on the territory of the Russian Federation, has dual citizenship, one of which is Russian, it is the basis of his civil legal capacity.

A foreign citizen who has a residence in the Russian Federation must obey Russian legislation. In the presence of several citizenships, a person must rely on the citizenship of the country in which he has a residence. Stateless persons (persons who do not have any citizenship) must consider the law of the country in which they live as a personal law.

Note that in most cases, persons who do not have citizenship, as well as foreign nationals in the territory of our country, have exactly the same duties and rights as its residents.

What is the capacity of citizens

If civil capacity implies that a person can bear obligations and have rights, then civil capacity means that he can fulfill his duties, acquire and exercise legal rights. The legal capacity can be:

- complete;

- partial;

- Limited;

- zero.

As already mentioned at the beginning, the combination of legal capacity and legal capacity is civil legal personality, that is, the ability to carry and exercise its own rights, as well as to have and perform duties.