Assigning Legal Personhood To Smart Home In Malaysia: An Exploration

Abstract

In a Smart House or Smart Home, products and services are capable of working together through a hybrid of network and functions without conscious human intervention. The absence of conscious intention, decision and action by a specific person therefore create legal problems especially in respect of determination of legal personhood. It is difficult to determine the right and liability involved when the act is a series of actions prompted by a network of intelligent appliances and applications. This article aims at analysing the possibility of attributing legal personhood status to Smart House or Smart Home in Malaysia. It is based on a legal doctrinal and qualitative research. Mixed methods were used in analysing the data. The legal doctrinal analysis was used to analyse the literature regarding the matter especially from jurisprudent point of view. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data gathered from the interviews with 13 experts in the area of smart home. The experts are officers and professionals from different organization both in public and private sector. Having considered the issue, it is suggested that at the moment, attributing legal personality to Smart House or Smart Home in Malaysia similar to a person (full or quasi) or corporation is not possible.