The law of persons deals with legal personality (when it start/ends) and the rights and responsibilities that accompany it.  It also describes a person’s legal status (their capacity to make decisions) such as whether they are a minor, a prodigal or mental ill. In this branch of the private law we explore legal personality and status through asking questions such as:

·         Who is a person in the eyes of the law?

·         How does legal personality begin and end?

·         What are the different classes of persons recognised by the law?

·         How is a person’s status determined in the law?

·         What are the main factors that affect a person’s status in our law?


Module outcomes are:

Upon completing the module, you should be able to:

·         Know and understand the basic common law and statutory rules affecting a person’s status in South African Law;

·         Be able to identify and solve particular legal problems from a given set of facts (using the IRAC formula); and

·         Understand the impact of the Constitution on aspects of a person’s status as and where applicable.