CHAPTER IV 
SPECIFIC RIGHTS 
The present chapter is devoted to a definition and discus- 
sion of the specific rights classified above. 
a. Antecedent rights are rights to conduct for its own 
sake, that is, before any wrongdoing, and therefore they may 
also be called primary rights. 
b. Remedial rights are the rights to judicial remedies to 
prevent or to redress violations of antecedent rights, and may 
therefore be called secondary rights. 
(1) “A right in rem is a right against another particular 
individual accompanied by similar rights against all or nearly 
all others.” (Corbin.) All legal rights in rem are ante- 
cedent. The conduct called for by such rights is negative for- 
bearance. 
(2) “A right in personam is a right against another par- 
ticular individual unaccompanied by similar rights against all 
or nearly all others.” (Corbin.) The conduct called for by 
such a right is generally a positive act. Some antecedent 
legal rights are in personam and all remedial rights are in 
personam. 
1. Public rights are those which the state asserts for it- 
self. Public law includes criminal law, constitutional law, 
administrative law, the law of municipal corporations, and 
international law. 
A crime is a violation of a public antecedent duty in rem. 
Constitutional law deals with the framework of govern- 
ment, the functions and sovereign powers of its departments 
and subdivisions, and the duties of the state towards itself 
and its own citizens. 
Administrative law deals with such matters as revenue, 
army and navy, colonies and dependencies, statistics, regis- 
tration, naturalization and granting of charters, sanitation, 
poor laws, asylums, coinage, weights and measures, profes- 
sions, trade, foreign commerce, public callings, prisons, main- 
tenance of order, detection of crime, lighthouses, etc., and 
the promotion of the intellectual and moral welfare of the 
people. 
“Municipal Corporations are bodies politic, created by the 
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