nification it answers to one meaning of the Latin "jus," and serves to indicate law in the abstract. considered as the foundation of all rights, or the complex of underlying moral principles which impart the character of justice to all positive law, or give it an ethical content.
As a noun, and taken in a concrete sense, a right signifies a power, privilege, faculty, or demand. inherent in one person and iiicl- deut upon another. "Rights" are defined generally as "powers of free action." And the pi inial rights pertaining to men are undoubtedly enjoyed by human beings purely as such, being grounded in personality, and existing antecedenfly to their recognition by positive law. But leaving the abstract mor- al sphere, and giving to the teini a juristie content, a "right" is well defined as "a ca- pacity residing in one man of controlling, with the assent and assistance of the state, the actions of others." Hull. Jur. 69.
The noun substantive "a right" signifies that which jurists denoniinate a "fat-uity;" that which resides in a determinate peison, by virtue of a given law, and which avails against a person (or answers to a duty lying on a person) other than the person in whom it resides. And the noun substantive "right is the plural of the noun substantive "ii. right." But the expression "right," when it is USLII as an adjective. is equivalent to the adjective ‘‘just.’' as the adverb "rightly" is equivalent to the ndrerh "justly." And, when used as the abstract name corresponding to the adjective "right," the noun substantive "right" is synon- yi-nous with the noun substantive "justice." Anst. Jur_ § fi note.
In a narrower signification, the word de- notes an intai-est or title in an object of prop- erty; a just and legal clann to hold, use, or enjoy it, or to convey or donate it, as he may please. See Co. Litt. 345a.
Tile terui "ri_ " in civil society, is defined to mean that \\b 11 a man is entitled to have, or to do, or to receive from otbeis within the limits pi'escril7ed by law. Atrbison & L. R. Co. v. Bat), 6 bob. 40, 29 Am. licp. 3:35.
That which one person ought to have or rereiie from another, it being withheld from him, or not in iu's possession. In this sense. "right" has the force or‘ "clirlm," and is prop- erly expressed by the Latin "ins." Lord Coke considers this to be the proper signification of the wold, especially in writs and pleadings, where an estutt is turned to a Ti:/lit,‘ as
by discontinuance, dissoisin, etc. Co. Litt. 311311. Classification. Rights may be described
as perfect or impcrfcct, according as their action or scope is clear, settled, and determi- nate, or is vague and unfixed.
Rights are either ui. pcrsomzm or in mm. A right in persomim is one which impos s an obligat-ion on a definite person. A right in rem is one which imposes an obligation on persons generally; 1'. 9., either on all the world or on all the world except certain deteiminate persons. Thus. it I am entitled to exclude all persons from a given piece of land, 1 have a right in rein in respect of that land; and, if there are one or more persons, A., B., and C., whom I am not entitled to exclude from it, my right is still a right in rem. Sweet.
Rights may also be described as either primary or wouiiduiw. 1’riim.u'y rights are those which can be created without rei'ei'eiice in rights already existing. Sccoiiiluiy rights can only arise for the purpose of protecting or enfoicing prime - rights. They are either preventive (protective) or remedial (repartitire.) Sweet.
I’I'€’lJ(.’1l.H«L‘€ or protect-ive secondary rights exist in order to prevent the infringement or ioss of primary rights. They are judicial when they require the assistance of a court of law for their enforcement, and exti:ijudicinl when they are capable of being exercised by the party himself. Rcmeiliiil or I'(:[l(.lJ'|I- five secomlury rights are also either judicial or extrajudicial. They may further be di- video into (1) rights of restitution or restoration, which eiititie the person injured to be replaced in his original position; (2) rights of enforcement, which entitle the person injured to the performance of an act by the person bound; and (3) rights of satisfaction or compensation. Id.
With respect to the ownership of external objects of property, rights may be classed as absolute and quizlifleil. An absointe right gives to the person in whom it inlieres the uncontrolled dominion over the object at all times and for all purposes. A qualified right gives the possessor a right to the object for certain purposes or under certain circumstances only. Such is the right of a baillee to recover the article bailed when it has been unlawfully taken from him by a stranger.
Rights are also either legal or equitable. The former is the case where the person seeking to enforce the right for his own benefit has the legal title and a remedy at law. The latter are such as are enforceable only ni equity; as, at the suit of L'L‘&['lti quiz trust.
In constitutional law. There is also .1 classification of rights, with respect to the constitution of civil society. Thus, according to Blackstone, "the rights of persons, considei-cd in their natural capacities, are of two sorts,—iibis'oliito and relative; absolute. which are such as appertain and belong to particular men, merely as individuals or sin- gle persons: relative, which are incident to them as members of society, and standing in various relations to each other." 1 Isl. Comm. 123. And see In re Jacobs, 33 Ilun (N. Y.) 374; Atchlson it N. It Co. v. Biity, 6 Neb. 37, 29 Am. Rep. 336; Johnson v. Johnson, 32 Ala. (L37; People v. Berbei-rich. 20 Barb. (N. Y.) 224.
Rights are also classified in constitutional law as natural, civil, and political, to which there is sometimes added the class of "personal rights."
Natural rights are those which grow out of the nature of man and depend upon personality, as distinguished train such as are
