Right a AND Duties

RIGHTS

- A right, considered in general, is that which is just, whether this be a just law, just deed, just
debt, or a just claim.

- RIGHT is founded upon law. For the existence of a right in one person involves an obligation in
all others of not impending or violating the right.

- And whether this law, upon which right is based, be the natural law or positive law, it is (as all
true law) founded ultimately upon the Eternal law, hence the ultimate basis of right is the
Eternal law.

- DIVISION OF RIGHT

1. RIGHT IS NATURAL OR POSITIVE

- According as it is founded upon the natural law or positive . As positive law is both divine and
human, we distinguish divine right and human right.

- NATURAL RIGHT- is the right to preserve ones’s life

- DIVINE RIGHT – is the right of the Church to teach

- ECCLESIASTICAL RIGHT–is an established by canon law

- CIVIL RIGHT - is the right of citizens to vote

2. Right is also distinguish as right of property ( or possession) and right of jurisdiction.

 Right of property - is called a right in property or possession when goods are actually in hand.

 Right to property - when goods are owned, but not in hand

3. Right is alienable

- When its subject (i.e., its possessor) may lawfully cede or renounce it. I may renounce my right
in property by giving it away.

- 4. Right is juridical (or perfect)

- When it is a legal right, a right strictly enjoined by law, natural or positive.

- it is a right which must be respected, allowed, fullfilled, as a matter of strict justice.

PROPERTIES OF RIGHT

- Right as a moral which all are bound to respect we do not list inviolability as one of the
properties of right. Inviolability belongs to the essence of right as such.

THREE PROPERTIES OF RIGHT

 Coaction – It is the power which right enjoys of forcefully preventing its violation, and
exacting correct for unjust violation (between man and man through process of law)
  Limitation – It is the natural terminus of right, beyond which it cannot be exercised
without violating the right of another.

 Collision – It is the apparent conflict of two rights in such wise that one cannot be
exercised without violation of the other.

SUBJECT OF THE RIGHT

• By the subject of the RIGHT we mean the person who possesses right.

• PERSON- is the subject of the RIGHT

• RIGHT is a moral power, and belongs only to those that can exercise moral acts. Therefore brute
animals have no rights.

• Cruelty to animals are immoral and evil.

Duty

- A DUTY considered objectively, that is as an object or thing, is anything one of obliged to do or

to omit.

- Duty is a moral obligation, that is an obligation resting as a requirement upon a free will, hence
the subject of a duty is person, and only a person.

- Duty is the correlative of a right. A RIGHT in one imposes a duty on all others of respecting it, of
not violating it. Duty, like right, is based on law.

DIVISION OF DUTIES

 A DUTY is imposed by the natural law is natural; a duty which comes from positive law is
positive.

 The duty of worshipping God is a natural duty; as also is the duty of preserving one’s life.

 A DUTY which obliges in strict justice, and so correspond to a perfect right, is a perfect or
juridical duty.

 A DUTY which does not obligate according justice, but according to charity or some other
virtue, and so correspond to a non-juridical right, is a non-juridical, an imperfect.

Ex. The obligation of paying to an employee the wage agreed upon is a perfect duty, while the duty of
giving alms to the needy is a moral duty.

 There are greater and lesser duties, and where these seem to conflict, the lesser ceases to be a
duty, and the greater prevails. That is the greater duty (in an apparent collision) which comes
from the higher power, the higher law.

 Ex. Duties towards God come before duties to human, and if a parent forbids his child to hear
Mass on Sunday, the duty of obeying parents ceases, in this instance, to bind the child, while the
duty towards God prevails.

EXEMPTION FROM DUTY

 - DUTY is founded upon law. Now there is an old saying that, “Necessity knows no law”.

- What of the value of this saying in moral matters?

- Does necessity exempt from duty?

Three degrees of necessity

• 1. EXTREME NECESSITY – When one’s choice lies between duty and death, or between duty and
an evil fairly comparable with death.

• Ex. Christians taken prisoner by the early persecutors and faced with the alternative of death or
denial of their faith.

• 2. GRAVE NECESSITY - when one’s choice lies between duty and notable evil less than death,
such as loss of health, good name, or very valuable property.

• Ex. A man who will be considered an employs an embezzler unless he secretly and unlawfully
employs a fund which he holds in trust for another.

• 3. COMMON OR ORDINARY NECESSITY - when one’s choice lies between duty and enduring of
ordinary evils or common hardships.

• Ex. A man of sound health who must disregard the Lenten fast or endure some weakness and
occasional headaches.

• Four principles concerning the exempting force of necessity

• 1. Common or Ordinary necessity never exempts from duty.

• 2. No necessity exempts from a negative natural duty.

• 3. Extreme or grave necessity exempts from a natural affirmative duty, provided there is no
involved violation of a negative percept of the natural law.

• 4. Extreme or grave necessity exempts from duty imposed by human positive law, provided
there is no involved violation of negative natural law.