CONCEPT AND
CLASSIFICATION OF
RIGHTS
Bhawana Bhandari
CONTENTS
• Concept of right
• Definition of right
• Classification of right
• References
CONCEPT OF RIGHT
• The fundamental concept of law
• A power, privilege, demand, or claim possessed
by a particular person by virtue of law
• Jurists differ in their view in regard to right
DEFINITION OF RIGHT
• Hugo Grotious, “right is a moral quality by which a
person is competent to do or have a thing justly”
• Sir John Salmond, “ an interest recognized and protected
by a rule or justice. It is an interest in respect of which
there is a duty and the disregard of which is wrong”
• John Austin, “a party has a right when another or
others are bound or obliged by law to do or forbears
towards or in regard of him”
• Ihering, “legally protected interest”
• Prof. Vinogradoff, “right is a range of action assigned to
a particular will within the social order established by
law… a right, therefore, supposes a potential exercise
of power in regard to things or persons… When a man
claims something as his right, he claims it as his own
• Prof. Paton agrees that one of the most essential
conditions of a legal right is that it should be
enforceable by the legal process of the state.
• Exceptions of his assumptions:
i. State may sometimes redress the wrong by
compensating the injured party
ii. Some rights are imperfect by nature
iii. Certain laws do not confer the right of enforcement
to the courts
• Chief justice Duglus Holmes, “right is nothing but a permission
to exercise certain natural powers and upon certain conditions
to obtain protection, restitution or compensation by the aid of
public force”
• Dr. Holland, “a right is a capacity of a person of controlling the
action of others, with the assent and assistance of the state”
• Prof. Gray, “a legal right is that power which a man has to make
a person or persons do or refrain from doing a certain act or
certain acts , so far as the power arises from society imposing a
legal duty upon a person or persons”
• Pollock, “right is a freedom allowed and power
conferred by law”
• Kant, “right is the authority to compel”
• Duguit rejects right as the immoral and against the
interest of the society.
CLASSIFICATION OF RIGHTS
1. Perfect and imperfect rights
2. Positive and negative rights
3. Real and personal rights
4. Proprietary and personal rights
5. Right in re propria and right in re aliena
6. Principal and accessory rights
7. Primary and sanctioning rights
8. Legal and equitable rights
9. Vested and contingent rights
[Link] and private rights
PERFECT AND IMPERFECT RIGHTS
• Enforceability is the test of this right
• Perfect rights are those which are enforced by the state
• Imperfect rights are those which are not enforced by the
state
• They are the exception to the maxim, ‘ubi jus ibi
remedium’ meaning where there is a right, there is a
remedy
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE RIGHTS
• Positive right is that right which compels another
person to do certain thing
• It corresponds to a positive duty
• Negative right is a right which compels another person
not to do certain thing
• It corresponds to a negative duty
REAL AND PERSONAL RIGHTS
• Real right (right in rem) is available against the world
at large
• Personal rights (right in personam) is available against
a particular person or persons
PROPRIETARY AND PERSONAL RIGHTS
• Proprietary rights of a man constitutes his estate,
assets and his property and have monetary value
• Personal rights are elements in one’s well-being and
have no monetary value
RIGHT IN RE PROPRIA AND RIGHT IN RE
ALIENA
• Right in re propria means the right over one’s own
property
• Right in re aliena means the right over the property of
somebody else
• Four classes of right in re aliena given by Salmond:
i. Lease
ii. Servitude
iii. Security
PRINCIPAL AND ACCESSORY RIGHTS
• Principal rights are those rights which are independent
of other rights for their existence
• Accessory rights are ancillary to principal rights and
have a beneficial effect on the principal rights
PRIMARY AND SANCTIONING RIGHTS
• Primary or antecedent or substantive rights are those
rights which exist as such and do not originate from
any wrong
• Sanctioning or remedial or adjectival rights are those
rights which originate from some wrong
LEGAL AND EQUITABLE RIGHTS
• Popular in England
• Legal rights are recognized by the courts of common
law
• Equitable rights are recognized solely by the court of
chancery
VESTED AND CONTINGENT RIGHTS
• Vested right is the one in respect of which all events
essential to vest the right in the owner have happened
• It is a complete, transferable and heritable right
• Contingent right is the one in respect of which only some of
the essential facts necessary to vest the right have
happened.
• It does not create immediate interest.
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS
• A right vested in the state is called public right
• A right concerned with private individuals is called the
private right
REFERENCES
• Studies in Jurisprudence and Legal Theory, Dr. N. V.
Paranjape
• Jurisprudence (Legal Theory), Prof. Nomita Aggarwal