Abstract: Capacity for action and legal capacity are two fundamental concepts in traditional jurisprudence. A relatively fixed jurisprudential understanding has taken shape in academia: capacity for action must be based on legal capacity, and without legal capacity, there can be no capacity for action. The major flaw of this analytical approach is that it fails to explain the legal basis for the design of legal capacity in law - namely, the characteristics of human capacity for action as a whole - and it does not properly clarify the institutional premise on which capacity for action depends on legal capacity. In fact, capacity for action has both objective and subjective dimensions and belongs to the domain of the value of freedom, whereas capacity for action within the framework of legal capacity is an institutional concept that falls within the domain of the rule of law. With the introduction of artificial intelligence into real life, an individual's capacity for action can be enhanced through the assistance of AI. Accordingly, the deficiencies in the protection system for vulnerable groups - which merely compensate for insufficiencies in legal capacity by expanding capacity for action - should be rectified, and efforts should be focused on improving the capacity for action of rights-holders.

Keywords: legal capacity; capacity for action; vulnerable groups; new type of legal capacity; artificial intelligence

Author: Mo Jihong, director and research fellow, CASS Institute of Law;

Source: 4 (2026) Science of Law (Journal of Northwest University of Political Science and Law).