Exploring Legal Personhood: How Non-Human Entities Gain Legal Recognition

It's widely known that Corporations are People. This is universally agreed to be a good thing; I list Target as my emergency contact and I hope it will one day be the best man at my wedding.

Ships have long posed a tricky problem for states and courts. Similar to nomads, vagabonds, and college students on extended study abroad, they roam far and occasionally get into trouble.

The legal fiction of corporate personhood has been with us for centuries, but the boundaries of who—or what—counts as a person continue to expand in surprising ways.

If a river can have legal rights, what about mountains? Forests? Ecosystems? The line between property and person becomes increasingly blurry.

Personhood is less about biology and more about legal function—what rights and responsibilities we assign to entities that participate in society.