Definition
Representation of persons is a legal fiction by which one person steps into the legal position of another — typically a deceased ancestor — and thereby acquires the rights, interests, or standing that the represented person would have held. The representative is treated by law as if they occupy the place, degree, or rank of the person they represent.
The doctrine appears most prominently in two contexts:
1. SUCCESSION LAW: When a beneficiary or heir predeceases the decedent, that person's share may descend to their own descendants, who "represent" the deceased heir. A grandchild, for example, may inherit in place of a deceased parent, taking the share the parent would have received. This prevents an accidental windfall to surviving heirs and preserves the decedent's presumed intent to benefit a branch of the family.
2. LEGAL AGENCY AND STANDING: More broadly, representation describes the relationship in which one person acts on behalf of, or stands in the legal shoes of, another — as in agency, guardianship, trusteeship, or class action litigation, where a representative acts for persons who are absent, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to act for themselves.
The succession meaning is the primary one attached to this phrase as a term of art. The agency-and-standing meaning more often travels under related terms such as AGENCY, NEXT FRIEND, or CLASS REPRESENTATIVE.
Common Confusion
"Representation of persons" should not be confused with:
— REPRESENTATION (contracts/insurance): Statements of fact made by a party to induce a contract, particularly in insurance law. That usage is a distinct term of art. See Encyclopedia Cross-Reference.
— LEGAL REPRESENTATION: The attorney-client relationship, i.e., a lawyer representing a client in proceedings. That relationship is governed by professional responsibility rules and constitutional doctrine, not the succession fiction described here.
— MISREPRESENTATION: A false statement of fact giving rise to contract or tort liability. Entirely unrelated.
The shared root word "representation" creates significant conflation risk across these meanings in historical sources and multi-subject legal databases.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encounter this term most often in probate, estate, and succession materials, where it operates as a structural principle rather than a named doctrine. Several navigational points matter:
First, the term appears infrequently in modern statutory text by this exact phrase. Modern intestacy statutes — Uniform Probate Code and state equivalents — use PER STIRPES, PER CAPITA WITH REPRESENTATION, or simply "by representation" as the operative language. Searching for "representation of persons" in modern codes may yield sparse results; searching for those related terms will surface the same doctrine.
Second, in historical Louisiana materials, the Civil Law tradition gives this fiction a more explicit doctrinal form, and the Louisiana Civil Code has long used the phrase directly. Researchers working in Louisiana succession law, or comparing common law to civil law regimes, will find this exact phrase more prominent in Louisiana sources than in common law jurisdictions.
Third, the fiction's scope — whether it operates only in the direct descending line or extends to collateral relatives — varies by jurisdiction and period. Pre-20th century sources often restrict representation more tightly than modern statutes, which can produce inconsistent results when tracing historical estate disputes.
Fourth, when the term appears in non-succession contexts (guardianship records, class action history, colonial-era legal documents), researchers should confirm which sense is operating before drawing connections to succession doctrine.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary defines representation of persons as "a fiction of the law, the effect of which is to put the representative in the place, degree, or right of the person represented," citing the Louisiana Civil Code article 894. This definition captures the civil law formulation precisely and reflects the doctrine's Roman law origins, where it was elaborated as a mechanism for protecting descendants of predeceased heirs.
The explicit identification of this as a "fiction of the law" is significant. Black's is accurate that the law does not literally resurrect the deceased or alter biological relationships — it simply treats the representative as occupying a legal position they do not occupy in fact. This framing as legal fiction also explains why the doctrine's scope requires careful statutory definition: without a clear rule, courts historically disagreed on how many generations deep representation could reach and whether it operated among collateral heirs at all.
What historical dictionaries largely omit is the procedural dimension — how courts actually implement the fiction in contested estate proceedings — and the modern statutory overlay that has largely replaced common law representation rules with codified per stirpes and per capita schemes. Researchers should not treat the dictionary definition as a complete account of how the doctrine functions in any particular jurisdiction's modern law.
Jurisdictional Note
Louisiana, as a civil law jurisdiction, has historically given this doctrine its most explicit statutory form; researchers should expect more direct engagement with the phrase in Louisiana materials than in common law states. Common law jurisdictions implement the same underlying concept through per stirpes distribution rules, often without using the phrase "representation of persons" at all. Modern adoption of the Uniform Probate Code has standardized much of this across participating states, but pre-UPC materials and non-adopting jurisdictions will show significant variation.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia: Insurance Contracts — Representations, Warranties, and Conditions in Insurance (for the distinct insurance-law meaning of representation)
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia: Right to Counsel — Self-Representation (Faretta v. California) (for the constitutional right to represent oneself in criminal proceedings)
The Law Mind Business Organizations & Corporate Law Encyclopedia: Mergers and Acquisitions — Due Diligence and Representations and Warranties (for contractual representations in transactional contexts)