Willis: Anglo-American Law 
15 
3. Substance — Economic existence 
a. Property 
b. Freedom of industry and contract 
c. Promised advantages 
d. Advantageous relations 
e. Free association 
B. Security of social institutions 
1. Domestic 
2. Religious 
3. Political 
C. General morals 
D. Conservation of social resources 
1. Natural resources 
2. Dependents and defectives 
E. General progress 
1. Economic (free invention, trade, property, industry) 
2. Political (free criticism and opinion) 
3. Cultural (free science, art, learning) 
F. Individual life 
III. Legal Capacities. The law protects the social inter- 
ests named above, not by sending someone out like a police- 
man to see that all people respect and care for them, but by 
recognizing in persons legal capacities of influencing the con- 
duct of others and of requiring the assistance of the courts 
for the accomplishment of that result when it becomes neces- 
sary. 
A legal capacity, or ability, is the capacity, or ability, given 
one person, because of some social interest, to control the con- 
duct of others, thru the power of the state. Legal capacities 
include A. rights, B. privileges, C. powers, and I) . immuni- 
ties . 12 
All of the social interests which society has decided need 
protection are protected by means of some legal capacity, and 
in no other way; and this is as true in the realm of criminal 
law as it is in the realm of civil law. The law gives to the 
state certain public rights as it gives to individuals private 
rights. The first social interest historically recognized was 
that in the preservation of the peace. This social interest 
was protected civilly by giving to individuals, first, the right 
to personal safety ; and, later, by giving them the right to the 
control and society of family and dependents, the right of 
property, the rights of freedom of locomotion, reputation, 
immunity from fraud, advantages open to the community 
}2 23 Yale L. Jour. 16 ; 26 Yale L. Jour. 710; 29 Yale L. Jour. 169. 
