Artificial Legal Entities: Essays on Legal Agency and Liability

The monograph seeks to answer the questions of how juristic persons—as artificial legal entities with no distinct intellect or will of their own—can perform legal acts (i.e. engage in legal conduct) and in what way they can become legally liable (not only for their conduct). To develop these issues, the monograph explores the concept of a juristic person and this person’s legal acts from a general jurisprudential point of view, then from the perspective of fundamental rights, and finally from the viewpoint of contemporary law, with a particular emphasis on Czech law. The book addresses juristic persons’ legal acts not only in relation to substantive law, but also in respect of procedural rules that enable these persons to perform acts in civil proceedings. Several sections of the monograph deal with issues of liability and responsibility of juristic persons while analysing their “no-fault” and “fault-based” liability. The monograph also introduces a novel approach to vicarious liability of juristic persons. Finally, it explores juristic persons’ liability for administrative offences.

“This monograph provides a comprehensive picture of juristic persons and pursues a single goal, which is to examine critically the notion of a juristic person in the context of the relevant branches of positive law … [F]rom theoretical questions and issues … the publication turns to … particular legal frameworks in which juristic persons operate, while addressing practical aspects of the topic. Despite this practical dimension, the monograph does not forget to highlight the theoretical aspects and the inevitable insight into the very foundations of a juristic person’s existence. Such an approach offers an account of this difficult area, which is intelligible to theorists as well as readers interested in practical issues.”

doc. JUDr. Martin Škop, Ph.D.
Faculty of Law, Masaryk University, Czech Republic 

“The monograph is a rare piece of scientific work, which has been devoted to the concepts of legal conduct, legal responsibility and juristic person. The authors’ purpose was to determine the preconditions for the capacity of a juristic person to engage in legal conduct and to bear legal responsibility.

The book is an excellent piece of legal academic writing dedicated to the theory and practice of Czech civil law and should be consulted by any reader interested in comparative law research or in practising law in Czechia. It is well written in a precise English legal language, conclusions are well motivated and persuasive.”

prof. dr. hab. Ewa Baginska
Faculty of Law and Administration, Gdansk University, Poland