Private Law Foundations — Nine Sections (People • Person • Trust • Lawful Money • Commerce)
Private Law Foundations

Nine Sections — People, Person, Trust, Lawful Money & Commerce

A concise but detailed presentation of the nine pillars: jurisdiction; the legal person & capacity; trust law; common law; Lawful Money vs FRNs; contract–notice–rebuttal; status–standing–capacity; agency; and postal venue. Linked citations point to Cornell LII, the Constitution Annotated, and U.S. Code/U.C.C.

1) Nature & Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction defines which body of law applies and who may enforce it. A living man or woman stands naturally under common law. Other jurisdictions — admiralty/maritime (commerce and navigation), equity (trust/fiduciary), and statutory/administrative (corporate/agency) — attach by consent through signature, registration, or appearance as a legal person.

Key points

  • Common Law: law of the land for natural persons and private agreements.
  • Equity: trust & fiduciary remedies when legal damages are inadequate. LII — Equity
  • Admiralty/Maritime: international commerce & navigation; district courts have original jurisdiction. 28 U.S.C. § 1333
  • Constitutional frame: Article III extends judicial power to Law, Equity, and Admiralty. U.S. Const. art. III
  • Attachment by consent: personal/subject-matter jurisdiction commonly attach by appearance, signatures, and purposeful availment. Personal jurisdiction • Subject-matter jurisdiction
Parable — The Merchant & the Port
A merchant sails freely in open waters under maritime custom. Upon entering a foreign port for trade, he consents to the port’s rules. Likewise, entering statutory commerce attaches that “port’s” jurisdiction until one exits by clear notice and capacity.

Most people drift into statutory jurisdiction unknowingly — applying for benefits, registering property, or answering as “residents.” Jurisdiction is rarely forced; it is presumed through consent. Awareness is the first step in choosing which law governs one’s affairs.

2) The Legal Person (ALL-CAPS) & Capacity

The living being is not the legal construct. The legal “person” (often ALL-CAPS) is an administrative franchise used for taxation, licensing, and corporate commerce. Statutory obligations address the person; rights belong to the man or woman. Capacity — the role in which one acts or signs — determines which rules attach.

Key points

  • “Person” defined: an entity (human or organization) with rights/duties in law. LII — Person
  • Capacity shifts liability: acting as individual, trustee, executor, or agent changes who is bound. LII — Legal capacity
  • Representative signatures: signing “as representative” binds the represented party if authority exists. U.C.C. § 3-402
Parable — The Actor & the Mask
The mask (person) is the role; the actor (man) is the reality. Courts and corporations address masks. When you answer as the mask, you accept its obligations. When you speak as the man, the mask falls silent.

Governments and banks need people to act as surety for the person — because only the person can be taxed or fined. Understanding capacity severs that confusion and restores voluntary participation.

3) Trust Law — Backbone of the Private

Commerce and governance operate through trust structures. A trust separates legal title (trustee) from equitable title (beneficiary). Equity compels trustees to perform for beneficiaries. The living man is the rightful beneficiary when he asserts that role.

Key points

Modern administration often inverts roles: the living man is treated as surety while the state behaves as beneficiary. Reasserting beneficiary/executor status reorders the relationship and prevents exploitation of one’s labor and property as collateral.

4) Common Law — Rights, Property, Remedy

Common law governs harm, property, and contract among living people. It operates through consent, custom, and remedy, requiring due process — notice and an opportunity to be heard. Constitutionally, states are constrained by the coin tender clause.

Key points

Replacing common-law venues with statutory tribunals shifted justice to policy. Reasserting common-law standing reopens the forum where truth and harm — not administrative convenience — decide outcomes.

5) Lawful Money vs Federal Reserve Notes

Lawful Money settles debt in fact. Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) are obligations — credit instruments that discharge but do not extinguish debt. The U.S. Code recognizes redemption of FRNs in lawful money on demand.

Key points

Example

Paying in FRNs discharges the obligation within the credit system but maintains underlying liability on ledgers. Paying in lawful money extinguishes it. The credit cycle monetizes the people’s labor while preserving systemic leverage.

This mechanism keeps producers working for promises while the central system monetizes output. Recognizing redemption exposes the illusion of value creation and returns financial sovereignty to the living source of value.

6) Contract, Notice, Rebuttal

Public process operates by contract: **offer–acceptance–consideration**. Proper notice, service, reservation of rights, and timely, point-by-point rebuttal govern whether consent exists. Silence after proper notice functions as assent in commercial contexts.

Key points

Statutory systems depend on un-rebutted presumptions. Government notices are structured as offers; failure to answer equals consent. Knowing how to answer — politely, specifically, and on the record — turns every summons into an offer you may decline.

7) Status, Standing, Capacity

Status is who you are in law (man/woman or person). Standing is your right to make a claim. Capacity is the role you occupy (principal, agent, trustee, beneficiary). These determine whether you are treated as a living man or as a debtor “person.”

Key points

Example

If you answer “JOHN DOE” in court, you confirm the debtor person. If you appear as the man “John” and disclaim surety, you restore status, standing, and capacity to the private — and the proceeding must change form.

Courts presume everyone appears as the debtor person. Declaring status as a living man, standing as beneficiary, and capacity as executor collapses that presumption and restores control over one’s legal identity.

8) Law of Agency & Representation

Artificial entities act only through agents. A principal is bound when an agent acts within actual or apparent authority. Agents who exceed authority risk personal liability. Clarity about who speaks — and under what authority — keeps liability where it belongs.

Key points

Every officer, clerk, and attorney operates as an agent. Their power ends when the principal withdraws consent. Many individuals act as agents for their own corporate person, binding themselves to corporate debt. Acting only as principal — the living being — removes them from that chain.

9) Postal Law, Service, Venue

Certified and registered mail establish verifiable proof of notice and venue, create timelines, and anchor the record. Proper service and opportunity to respond underpin due process and commercial honor. Title 39 U.S.C. codifies the postal system as a lawful evidence mechanism.

Key points

Example

A certified notice signed by a registered agent fixes receipt and timelines. Failure to rebut within a reasonable window constitutes acceptance on the record; the signatory’s wet-ink acceptance carries personal accountability.

Agencies often rely on electronic “service” to bypass accountability. Certified mail forces human acknowledgment and restores transparency, making disregard legally perilous and compelling honorable response.

© Private Law Foundations — Educational Body