1. The Classificationof Legal Rights
• Perfect and ImperfectRights
• Positive and Negative Rights
• Real and PersonalRights
• Rights in Rem and Rights in Personam
• Proprietary and Personals Rights
• Inheritableand Uninheritable Rights
• Rights in Re Propria and Rights in Re Aliena
• Principal and Accessory Rights
• Legal and Equitable Rights
• Primary and Secondary Rights
• Public and PrivateRights
• Vested and Contingent Rights
• Servient and Dominant Rights
• Municipal and InternationalRights
• Ordinary and FundamentalRights
• Fus ad rem
2. Perfect and Imperfect Rights
• According to Salmond, a positve right corresponds to a positive
duty and entitles its owner to have something done for him
without the performance of which his enjoyment of the right is
imperfect and incomplete.
• Negative rights have negative duties corresponding to them and
enjoyment is complete unless interference takes place. The
majority of negative rights are against all the world.
Positive and Negative Rights
• According to Salmond, a positve right corresponds to a positive duty and
entitles its owner to have something done for him without the performance
of which his enjoymentof the rightis imperfect and incomplete.
• Negative rights havenegative duties corresponding to them and enjoyment
is complete unless interference takes place. The majority of negative rights
are against all the world.
3. Real and Personal Rights
• According to Salmond, a real right corresponds to a duty imposed upon
persons in general. A real rightis available againstthe whole world.
A personalright corresponds to a duty imposed upon determinate
individuals. A personalright is available only againsta particular person.
Rights in Rem and Rights in Personam
• Jus in rem means a right against or in respectof a thing. A right in rem is
available against persons generally.
• Fus in personammeans a rightagainst or in respectof a person. A right in
rem is available against the whole world but a right in personamis available
against a particular individual only.
Proprietary and Personals Rights
• The proprietary rights of a person include his estate, his assets and his
property in many forms. Proprietary rights havesomeeconomic or
monetary value. Examples of proprietary rights arethe right to debt, the
right to goodwill, the right to patent, etc.
4. • Personalrights are not valuable. Personalrights are merely elements in his
well-being. They possess merely judicialimportance.
Inheritableand UninheritableRights
• A right is inheritable if it survives its owners. Proprietary rights are
inheritable. The heirs of a proprietary owner become owners after his
death.
• A right is uninheritable if it dies with him. Personalrights are uninheritable.
In the case of personalrights, they die with the owner and cannotbe
inherited.
Rights in Re Propria and Rights in Re Aliena
• According to Salmond, a right in re aliena or encumbranceis one which
limits or derogates from somemore general right belonging to some other
person in respect of the same subjectmatter. The pledgee has jus in re
5. propria or a right over his own property. Rights in re aliena are rights over
the property of another persons.Allother rights are rights in re propria.
• The owner of a chattel has jus in re propria or a rightover his on property.
Rights in re propria are rights in one’s own property. My right of ownership
of my land is a right in re propria.
Principal and Accessory Rights
• Principal rights exist independently of other rights.
• Accessory rights areappurtenantto other rights and they have a beneficial
effect on the principal rights.
Legal and EquitableRights
• Legal rights wererecognized by common law courts and equitable rights
were recognized by the Courtof Chancery. The Judicature Act of 1873 put
an end to the distinction between legal and equitable rights.
6. Primary and Secondary Rights
• Primary rights are also called antecedent, sanctioned or enjoymentrights.
• Secondary rights are called sanctioning , restitutory or remedial rights.
• Primary rights are thoserights which are independent of a wrong having
been committed. They exist for their own sake. They are antecedent to the
wrongfulact or omission.
• Secondly rights are a partof the machinery provided by the state for the
redress of injury done to primary rights.
Public and Private Rights
• A public right is possessed by every member of the public.
• A private right is concerned only with individuals.
Vested andContingent Rights
• A vested right is a right in respectof which all events necessary to vest it
completely in the owner havehappened. No other condition remains to be
satisfied.
• In the case of a contingent right, only some of the events necessary to vest
the rightin the contingent owner havehappened.
7. Servient and DominantRights
• A servientright is one which is subject to an encumbrance. The
encumbrancewhich derogates fromit may be contrasted as dominant.
• The land for the beneficial enjoyment of which the right exists is called the
dominant heritage and the owner or occupier thereof is called the
dominant owner.
MunicipalandInternationalRights
• Municipal rights are conferred by the law of a country. All
municipal rights are enjoyed by the individuals living in a country.
• International rights are conferred by international law. The
subjects of international right are the persons recognized as such
by international law.
8. Ordinary and FundamentalRights :
Fus ad rem
• A jus as rem is a right to a right. The person of inherence has the
right to have some other right transferred to him. The jus ad rem
is always a right in personam. If I sell my house to K, K acquires a
right against me to have the house transferred to himself. The
right of K is said to be a jus ad rem. Whether the right to be
transferred is a right in rem or only a right in personam, the jus ad
rem is always a right in personam.