united-states
Would sentient aliens be legal persons?
<p>Suppose some sentient aliens figure out how to receive our radio and TV broadcasts. They eventually decode the English language, and a few of them study it enough to be fluent. They land somewhere in the United States, perfectly capable of conversing with humans. Are they legal persons?</p>
<p>Since they obviously aren't citizens, are they illegal &quot;aliens&quot; (in the legal sense of the word &quot;alien&quot;)?</p>
<p>If a person stole from one of the aliens, could the alien sue?</p>

<p>Quite possibly such hypothetical non-human intelligent beings would be treated as legal persons, but one cannot be sure in advance. If when humans first encountered such beings, they routinely treated them as persons, that might well influence any later legal treatment. If, on the other hand, humans initial treated such beings as &quot;dumb animals&quot;.</p>
<p>Eventually, there would no doubt have to be new law passed, or a court ruling on how existing law was to be applied to such beings, rt quite possibly both. One would<strong>hope</strong> that the law would treat such beings as fully human, but such past cases as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott_v._Sandford" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>Dred Scott v. Sandford</em>, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857)</a> make tyhst less assuted than one might wish.</p>

<p><strong>Precedent would have to be set, probably with governments in the lead.</strong></p>
<p>It would be possible legislatures make decisions to force the government's hand, or that courts intervene (on behalf of the extraterrestrials). But in all likelihood, governments would make the first decisions in the name of <em>national security.</em></p>
<p>So this is not really a suitable question for Law SE. You might pose the question in Worldbuilding SE, but that is distinctly <em>fictional</em>.</p>
<p>When it comes to law, consider the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_ape_personhood" rel="nofollow noreferrer">precedent</a> of primates. Primates are not <em>homo sapiens sapiens</em>, not even <em>homo</em>, only <em>hominoidae</em>. Their rights in the United States are weaker than in Europe, and not even Europe gives them rights like a human.</p>
<p>The extraterrestrials' status as &quot;illegal aliens&quot; would depend on how they come in. If they had government permission to land, without conditions communicated beforehand, they could later argue in court that they were recognized as legal persons and given entry permission. Revoking that would raise the question if they can leave. But the government might argue that they are not allowed their time in court, with a variety of good and bad explanations ...</p>
