March 12, 2027
About the Symposium
The core question addressed by this Symposium is both timely and timeless: Who or what should receive recognition as a person in our legal system? Legal personhood is currently at a crossroads. Around the world, lawmakers and courts are debating whether to expand legal personhood to animals, nature, and AI. Meanwhile, the legal personhood of other entities—such as fetuses, corporations, states, and tribes—continues to be a topic of deep disagreement.
Legal personhood implicates questions that are foundational and consequential. It puts at issue who should have recognized status and standing in our legal system. Who matters morally? What legal rights are they entitled to? What legal duties do they owe? These questions in turn raise a host of difficult philosophical and scientific questions. What ontological, biological, and metaphysical features ground moral and legal status?
The Organizing Committee
Hanoch Dagan
Elizabeth J. Boalt Distinguished Professor of Law and Founding Director, Berkeley Center for Private Law Theory
Berkeley Law
Ela Leshem
Associate Professor of Law
Fordham
Agenda
TBA
Participants
Amy Adler, NYU
Shyamkrishna Balganesh, Columbia
Mala Chatterjee, Columbia
Hanoch Dagan, Berkeley
Seth Davis, Berkeley
Moshe Halbertal, NYU
Daniel Hemel, NYU
Andrew Koppelman, Northwestern
Ela Leshem, Fordham
Matthew Liebman, San Francisco
Melissa Murray, NYU
Fred Smith, Stanford