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Personhood and (Non-) Natural Persons a Philosophical Journey Towards a Conceptual Normative Structure of Personhood

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Personhood and (Non-) Natural Persons a Philosophical Journey Towards a Conceptual Normative Structure of Personhood Personhood and (Non-) Natural Persons A Philosophical Journey Towards A Conceptual Normative Structure of Personhood Christiaan van der Does de Willebois 10579907 ABSTRACT Master thesis Philosophy Summer 2015 Graduate School of Humanities, University of Amsterdam Coordinator: Jacques Bos Second reader: Thomas Nys MA Thesis Philosophy – Christiaan van der Does de Willebois - 10579907 Overview Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 An Example of Non-Natural Personhood Section 1.1 Legal Personhood Section 1.2 Moral Personhood Section 1.3 The History of the Corporate Personhood Section 1.4 The Merging of Legal Personhood and Moral Personhood: the Corporation Section 1.5 Corporate Moral Personhood: Should It Be? A. Arguments against Corporate Moral Personhood B. Arguments for Corporate Moral Personhood Section 1.6 Conclusions Chapter 2 Philosophical Theory: Moral Personhood Section 2.1 Three Account of Moral Personhood Section 2.1.1 Ontological Account Section 2.1.2 Subjective Account Section 2.1.3 Objective Account Section 2.2 Conclusions Chapter 3 A Normative Structure Section 3.1 The Three Accounts of Moral Personhood and their Consequences Section 3.2 A Fourth Account: The Political-Natural Account A. A Moral Interpretation: Natural Moral Personhood B. Consequential Interpretation: Consequential Moral Personhood Section 3.3 The Consequences of the Moral Personhood Accounts and Fundamental Rights Section 3.4 Fundamental Rights Distinctions Section 3.5 A Hierarchy of Fundamental Rights Section 3.6 Conclusions Chapter 4 Conclusions 2 MA Thesis Philosophy – Christiaan van der Does de Willebois - 10579907 Acknowledgments I would like to thank Jacques Bos for all help given and positive feedback during the past half year that I wrote this thesis. 3 MA Thesis Philosophy – Christiaan van der Does de Willebois - 10579907 Introduction Non-natural persons are “hip” nowadays. Advocates of corporations, animals, and even plants, have tried to assure that these non-natural objects are granted personhood-status. Along with the personhood-status comes a package of rights, even fundamental rights. However, until now, only one non-natural object has succeeded in becoming a person in the eyes of the law: the corporation. To give an example, in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission (FEC), the U.S. Supreme Court granted corporations the fundamental right of free speech in a case that had nothing to do with free speech. Citizens United sued the FEC, reasoning that, as campaign donations are a protected form of speech, the government cannot bind a corporation’s independent political contributions. As corporations and natural persons are both seen as legal persons, also corporations should be granted the freedom of speech; they should be able to freely choose, both for and to, the cause they wish to donate. The Supreme Court agreed; because political speech is a form of speech, corporations were granted a version of freedom of speech. The Citizens United case came at the height of the equality battle between corporations (or non-natural persons) and natural persons. This battle is known as the corporate personhood (CP) debate: In the eyes of the law, the business corporation is a person. So, for example, the corporation can own property in its own right; it can sue or be sued, in contract or tort or any number of other causes of action; it can be prosecuted and punished for criminal activity; it enjoys various rights under the United States Constitution; and it is subject to tax liability. In these respects (and others), the corporation bears the legal attributes of an entity existing separately from the various natural persons who participate or have an interest in the corporation’s activities. (Millon, 2001, p. 1) The concept of CP is exemplary for the rise of non-natural persons in contemporary times. In the United States, the notion of personhood is used as a way to claim (fundamental) rights. This implicates that, as natural persons have natural personhood and therefore certain rights, corporations should have certain rights as well, in the form of CP. The corporation will be held as an example for the rise of the non-natural person in this thesis. Human rights, fundamental rights, and constitutional rights are used in essentially the same way: to prevent any infringements to these rights and to capacitate (natural) persons to act in society. These rights have a strong ethical footing. They are not just about biological human 4 MA Thesis Philosophy – Christiaan van der Does de Willebois - 10579907 beings, but also about something more. Most authors on human rights say that one has to be a “moral person” in order to have fundamental rights. This personhood-approach could be divided into multiple accounts. The classic approach bases moral personhood on humanity or human dignity. For example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) take this approach. Other scholars say that the essence of a person is derived from certain characteristics that one possesses, such as intentionality, sentience, or language. Some academics argue that a moral person is defined through actions and deeds with others in society. The fact that these human, fundamental, or constitutional rights are essentially meant for natural persons makes abstract the idea of granting these rights to “anyone or anything” other than natural persons, for example, to non-natural persons such as corporations, aliens, artificial intelligence (AI), robots, animals, and even plants. There is a history behind the rise of non-natural personhood. Since corporations were the first non-natural persons, they will be held as the model in order to grasp this concept better. A fair question to ask would be, for example, if it is possible to become a citizen as a corporation. Other issues needing answers are how it is possible that corporations have moral personhood, and therefore, fundamental rights. If non-natural personhood has already resulted in corporations gaining fundamental rights, then one wonders what that means for our future. It needs to be determined if there are limits to the rights of non-natural persons or if they will eventually be fully equated to natural persons, in the sense that they can also be granted the right to life. We need to be concerned where those boundaries are drawn. In this thesis, all these questions and issues will be answered. The main question of this thesis is: In what respect should non-natural persons and animals be equal to natural persons? There are four sub-questions. 1) What is a person, and how did non-natural persons gain personhood-status? 2) What are the leading accounts of moral personhood? 3) Could we construct a normative conceptual structure to analyse personhood? 4) What are the implications of this normative conceptual structure for the hierarchy of fundamental rights? 5 MA Thesis Philosophy – Christiaan van der Does de Willebois - 10579907 Outline First, the Citizens United case will be used as the example of a non-natural person that has been ascribed fundamental rights. In the first chapter, the origins of personhood will be discussed; and, the historical development leading to corporate personhood will be examined. Also, the arguments pro and contra of the ascription of fundamental rights to non-natural persons will be addressed. In the second chapter, the three main accounts of moral personhood will be discussed. Moral personhood is leading in the attribution of fundamental rights to natural persons, and it is moral personhood-status that non-natural persons pursue. Defining moral personhood will be key to understanding the current personhood debate. Furthermore, it will help in the development of a conceptual normative framework that merges the three accounts of moral personhood into one: the political-natural account of moral personhood. This will be discussed to a greater extent in chapter three. Because there is a lack of normative personhood theories, this thesis is important, as it will develop such a framework. After elaborating on personhood and defining the limits of legal and moral personhood, the next step will show the legal implications of such a theory. In order to do so, it is necessary to first look at the underlying value of fundamental rights. After defining this underlying value, it will become clearer what steps should be taken to show the boundaries of non-natural personhood and the attribution of fundamental rights. The corporation will be held exemplary for the non-natural person. This thesis, and the normative framework that is proposed here, is suitable for all non-natural persons, even if they come from Pluto, or are of the animal species. Having defined this framework, it will demonstrate why corporations should have a form of moral personhood. Terminology In this thesis I will refer to natural persons, non-natural persons, and animals. Humans, in this thesis, are seen as natural persons. A natural person is anyone who, based on humanity and human dignity, is a living human being. Under non-natural persons are only artificial persons, such as corporations, artificial intelligence, and robots. Animals are not (yet) persons in the eyes of the law; however, they do have certain moral rights. 6 MA Thesis Philosophy – Christiaan van der Does de Willebois - 10579907 Mainly fundamental rights will be referenced to in this thesis; which includes also human rights and constitutional rights. There are two reasons that fundamental rights are used as an umbrella concept. First, “human rights” is a very confusing term in relation to anything that is not natural or human. Second, “constitutional rights” is, for many people, too vague of an expression, as it does not define exactly what is constitutional and non-constitutional; it is impossible to determine where the dynamic line is drawn. Therefore, the concept of fundamental rights is used here, as it has an exact and limited content: the most essential rights to persons.
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