CHAPTER IIJ 
RIGHTS— IN GENERAL 
A. Right. The greatest of the legal capacities is a right. 
1. Definition. A legal right is the legal capacity, or abil- 
ity, to enforce action or forbearance (performance) by 
another. Illustrations of rights are contracts, property, per- 
sonal safety, reputation, etc. 
A right is one’s affirmative claim against another. Hohfeld. 
A right is the legal relation of two where society enforces action 
or forbearance for one. Corbin. 
A legal right is the capacity residing in one man of controlling, with 
the assent and assistance of the state, the action of others. Holland. 
The correlative of a right is a duty. A legal duty is the 
legal liability to perform some act or forbearance for another. 
When a legal duty is in personam it may be called a legal 
obligation. 
A legal duty is the legal relation where society enforces action or 
forbearance by one. Corbin. 
A legal duty exists where one is bound to do or not to do some- 
thing because of some interest, social, public, or private, which the 
law undertakes to maintain through the power of the state invoked in 
judicial proceedings. Pound. 
2. Elements. The elements of a right are four: a. the 
person who has the legal capacity to enforce performance; b. 
the person under legal liability to render performance; c. the 
conduct (act or forbearance) to which one is entitled and 
which the other owes; and d. the object to which such conduct 
relates. 
a, b. Persons. Persons are those legal entities to which 
the law gives legal capacity and liability. Persons are such, 
not because human beings, but because of their legal capacities 
and legal liabilities. When slavery was recognized, slaves 
were not persons, yet they were human beings. Neither all 
human beings are persons, nor are all persons human beings. 
Human beings sometimes act collectively. Such groups may 
be recognized as entities and given legal capacities. Hence 
persons are classed as natural persons and artificial (juristic) 
persons. Artificial persons are the state, corporations, part- 
nerships, and any other organizations (like labor unions) rec- 
ognized as legal entities. 
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