Law of Person
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LAWS 148 WORKSHEET 4: THE END OF LEGAL PERSONALITY AND PRESUMPTION OF DEATH ORDERS
1. INTRODUCTION
Having come to the end of a very long section dealing with the beginning of legal personality and protection of the interests of the unborn child, we must now move on to the rules governing the end of legal personality. What is of importance in this section are the legal rules and procedures dealing with the following situations:
where someone has been missing for a long time and there is uncertainty whether he or she is alive or not which raises the need for presumption of death orders; and
where people die in a single disaster and it is necessary to establish who died first for purposes of succession.
The most important resources for this study unit are the relevant sections in your prescribed textbook and the case of Ex Parte Govender 1993 (3) SA 721 (D) (coursepack, p. 60 62).
2. A JURISTIC CRITERION FOR DEATH
Read the section entitled "The end of legal personality" in your prescribed textbook (p. 23 24, 1999 edition).
Would you agree that there is a juristic criterion for the beginning of legal personality? The law states that a natural person's legal personality begins at birth, but then goes further to indicate what "birth" means in legal terms...