Theoretical foundations of legal personality and its modern evolution

Abstract

The article examines the theoretical foundations of the category of legal personality as an important element
of general legal theory and analyzes its contemporary evolution, which meets the requirements of the current
state of digitalization, globalization and complication of socio-legal relations. The purpose of the study is to
develop a systematic understanding of the nature of legal personality, to formulate the author’s original con
ceptual approach to its dynamic character, and to identify aspects requiring reconsideration within established
doctrinal approaches to legal theory. The methodological framework of the research is based on general sci
entific and specialized legal methods, including dialectical, system-structural, comparative-legal, and func
tional analysis. The study draws upon the works of domestic and foreign scholars, as well as normative
sources reflecting the evolution from a static interpretation of legal personality to a procedural and functional
approach. The research demonstrates that traditional schools of legal thought tend to interpret legal personali
ty as a fixed legal status, which does not sufficiently account for the transformation and contextual variability
of legal subjects associated with technological development. The authors present a procedural and functional
concept of legal personality that characterizes the dynamics of the legal status of an individual, the state and
new subjects (digital agents, organizations). The conclusion focuses on the need to revise the classical
doctrinal rules of legal personality and develop adaptive models of legal personality that ensure the flexibility
and tolerance of the legal system in a digital society.