Systems and methods are described that enhance a programming language by introducing support for declarative object identity in both class declarations and object literals. An exemplary system includes a memory that stores code associated with a computer program and a component coupled to the memory. The component is configured to access the code, to identify a variable in the code and a modifier associated with the variable and, responsive to identifying the variable, to use the variable to determine the identity of an object associated with the variable and to determine whether the object is equal to another object based on value semantics.