Why has moral person been replaced by legal person? (The roots of a term "moral person" in jus naturale)
Abstract
The term "moral person" is commonly confused with the term "legal person" in czech legal science. But in actual fact these two terms are not identical.
The term "moral person" has been introduced by Samuel Puffendorf (1632-1694) already at the end of 17th century and in the 18th century it has been put in more precise terms and further defined as to its content by Christian Wolff (1679-1754) and Daniel Nettelbladt (1719-1791). To understand the content of the term "moral person" it is necessary to go back to these authors, because it was them, who created this term and gave it its original content.
The objective of this article is to show the roots and content of the term "moral person" in jus naturale as well as to explain the reasons why Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779-1861) has replaced it by the term "legal person" in the Mid-Nineteenth century.