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Re:The Whanganui River in New Zealand is a legal person by markdown on Monday April 22, 2019 @11:47PM (#19725441)
I've always found "US govt VS $200" type court cases to be ridiculous.

Person vs Property.

Re:The Whanganui River in New Zealand is a legal person by mehrdadn on Tuesday April 23, 2019 @01:38AM (#19725874)
Are they actually titled that way? That's hilarious.
Re:The Whanganui River in New Zealand is a legal person by int_19h on Tuesday April 23, 2019 @01:43AM (#19725891)
Yep, that's exactly how civil forfeiture works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_United...

Re:The Whanganui River in New Zealand is a legal person by mehrdadn on Tuesday April 23, 2019 @01:55AM (#19725943)
Wow. I knew civil forfeiture was a claim brought against a property but I didn't realize that's literally what they would write as the defendant. I can't believe judges take this seriously...
Re:The Whanganui River in New Zealand is a legal person by pmyteh on Tuesday April 23, 2019 @06:25AM (#19727147)
There's a long tradition of actions in rem (against 'the thing') in law, especially in admiralty actions. If you're, say, the Port Authority for a harbour, and a foreign ship fails to pay its harbour dues, what do you do? The owner is an ocean away (and difficult to enforce jurisdiction over) but the ship is sitting right there and can (if necessary) be seized and sold. Looking at it that way it makes a lot more sense.