This paper discusses the fabrication of persons and things through legal techniques, taking as reference a study of Brazilian court rulings involving human beings after death. Analysis of these decisions reveals that any categorization of an entity as a person or thing depends on contingent distinctions made in particular situations, which in turn implies that law is in fact a powerful ontological device creating the world to which it refers. The contextuality of the person/thing distinction, partly associated with the complex topography of legal branches and specialities, allows different degrees of personification and reification to be identified, along with the possibility of fabricating persons and things by combining specific attributes from different entities.
Law; Legal techniques; Dead human beings; Persons and things