FINAL TOPIC

Week 13

RIGHTS AND
DUTIES
 OBJECTIVES
After this instruction, students will be able to:
1. DEFINE THE MEANING OF A RIGHT;
2. IDENTIFY THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS OF RIGHTS;
3. DISCUSS THE SOURCES OF RIGHTS;
4. ENUMERATE AND PROVIDE EXAMPLES FOR KINDS OF
RIGHTS; AND
5. DISCUSS THE PROPERTIES OF RIGHTS
 MEANING OF RIGHT
- Originally, right means straight, not crooked, or not distorted.

- Objectively, right means what ought to be, equitable, reasonable,

just or something which is due to others.

-Applied in Ethics, right means the object of justice.

 -Subjectively, right means a moral power or well-founded claim
to do, to hold, or to receive something from others.

 Juridically, rights are attached to persons, either human persons or

persons created through fiction of law like firms, institutions
among others.

- Rights implies duties

- There are no dutyless rights just as there are no rightless duties.

FOUR ELEMENTS OF RIGHT

1.Subject
2.Object
3.Title
4.Term
 FOUR ELEMENTS OF RIGHT
1. SUBJECT – refers to a person who is vested with the
moral power to do, to hold or to exact something as his
own.
2.OBJECT – refers to the right to which a person has a right

KINDS OF OBJECT TO A RIGHT:

1. Right to commit or omit
2. Right to keep, use or hold something
3. Right to demand something from others
 FOUR ELEMENTS OF RIGHT

3.TITLE – refers to the basis of a right demanded by the person

who has the capacity to exercise such right

4.TERM – refers to the person in whom is found the duty

corresponding to the right.
 SOURCE OF RIGHT
- Right has a source not from its beholder but from the law.

-Rights originate from the law particularly from the natural

law (MORAL LAW) and the human positive laws, civil and
ecclesiastical.

- The law is the origin of right because it is the law that

commands or prohibits one to do or omit in doing something.
 * The source of right is the law, therefore, right is in the
context of the law.

* NO laws, NO rights

* If there are laws, there are rights

* Rights are ontologically rooted from the natural law.

 10 KINDS OF RIGHTS

1. Natural 6. Negative
2. Acquired 7. Alienable
3. Public 8. Inalienable
4. Private 9. Perfect
5. Positive 10. Imperfect
 10 KINDS OF
RIGHTS
1. NATURAL RIGHTS
- Acquired by birth
- Also called human natural rights or human
rights
VIDEO ON UNIVERSAL DE
CLARATION OF HUMAN RI
GHTS
 EXAMPLES OF HUMAN NATURAL RIGHTS
1. Right to life 11. Right to respect for his person
2. Right to freedom 12. Right to good reputation
3. Right to acquire properties 13. Right to communicate his opinion
4. Right to education 14. Right to worship God
5. Right to a livelihood 15. Right to politics
6. Right to food 16. Right to meeting and association
7. Right to clothing 17. Right to search for truth
8. Right to rest
9. Right to medical care
10. Right to work
TEN BASIC RIGHTS OF THE CHILDREN
1. Right to be born ,to have a name and
nationality
2. Right to a family
3 .Right to health
4. Right to education
5. Right to rest, leisure, cultural and artistic
activities
 TEN BASIC RIGHTS OF THE CHILDREN
6. Right to be protected from abuse, exploitation
and discrimination
7. Right to express his/her views and opinions
8. Right to have access to appropriate information
9. Right to special care and assistance
10. Right to protection and privacy
 10 KINDS OF
RIGHTS
2. ACQUIRED RIGHTS – which man gains
through the fulfillment of some conditions.

Ex: Person’s right to vote or suffrage

 10 KINDS OF
3. PUBLIC RIGHTS – RIGHTS
those which are possessed by a prefect
society.

Ex: Church and state

4. PRIVATE RIGHTS – possessed by an individual or by an

imperfect society.

Ex. Fraternal associations, business, or

certain organization
 10 KINDS OF
RIGHTS
5. POSITIVE RIGHTS – conferred upon a person the
power to do certain things.

Ex. Right to marry, to possess wealth

 10 KINDS OF
RIGHTS
6. NEGATIVE RIGHTS – those which do not confer
upon a person who has the right to perform certain
things.

Ex. Right not to steal

Right not to kill or murder
Right to commit immoral acts
 10 KINDS OF
RIGHTS
7. ALIENABLE RIGHTS – rights which can be
renounced and transferred.

Ex. Right of ownership of a piece of land, building or

vehicle or money
 10 KINDS OF
RIGHTS
8. INALIENABLE RIGHTS – Rights which cannot
be transferred or renounced since they are
indispensable for a person’s basic obligation.

Ex. Right to life and right to adore God

 10 KINDS OF
RIGHTS
9. PERFECT RIGHTS – rights which are enforced by
law. Also called legal or juridical rights.

Examples
1. Right of parents to support their children,
2. Right of lesson to collect payment from lessee,
3. Right to demand payment of a certain debt,
 10 KINDS OF
RIGHTS
10. IMPERFECT RIGHTS - those rights which
are not enforced by law.
- Also called nonjuridical rights.

Ex. One’s right to express gratitude to a benefactor

THREE PROPERTIES OF RIGHTS

1. Limitation
2. Collision
3. Inviolability
 THREE PROPERTIES OF RIGHT
1. LIMITATION
- Every right has limitation; so as not to violate the right of
others.

 The Constitution specifically provides that any limitation must be fair

and reasonable.

 The importance of the limitation of the right. For example, the police
official’s duty is to protect the public. It is important for him/her to
search a person’s home, limiting that person’s right to privacy, to
obtain evidence that can be used in a court.
 THREE PROPERTIES OF RIGHT

2. COLLISION OF RIGHTS
- when two rights are in conflict;
- since rights originated from laws and since laws
cannot be in contradiction to one another, it follows that
rights cannot collide with one another
- Laws cannot be in contradiction to one another, it
follows that rights cannot collide with one another.
 THREE PROPERTIES OF RIGHT

3. INVIOLABILITY
- Rights are intrinsically inviolable.
- Thus, if the rights of a person is violated, that person
can use physical force in defense of it or in enforcing it.
FOUR REASONS TO JUSTIFY THE USE OF
VIOLENCE IN DEFENSE OF RIGHTS
(Moralists)

1. That the intention of the defendant should be

geared only towards the protection or
vindication of the right

2. That there is no other way of defending the

right.
FOUR REASONS TO JUSTIFY THE USE OF
VIOLENCE IN DEFENSE OF RIGHTS (Moralists)

3. That violence should be used only in times of aggression.

4. That the right to be defended is primordially important

like purity, life, dignity, freedom, among others.
 ELEMENTS OF SELF-DEFENSE
RPC Art. 11.
1. Anyone who acts in defense of his person or rights (does not
incur any criminal and civil liability) provided that the
following circumstances concur:
 
First. Unlawful aggression.
Second. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to
prevent or repel it.
Third. Lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the person
defending himself.
DUTIES
 Meaning of Duty
Objectively, duty means anything
that ought to be done or omitted.

Subjectively, duty means the

moral obligation of a person to
respect the rights of others.
As a moral obligation, duty
binds the will or it is laid on
the will since just like
correlative, i.e. right, duty
originates from law.
SIX KINDS OF DUTY

1. Natural Duty
2. Positive duty
3. Affirmative duty
4. Negative duty
5. Perfect duty
6. Imperfect duty
 SIX KINDS OF DUTY

1. NATURAL DUTY 2. POSITIVE DUTY

One which is One which comes

imposed by from positive law.
Natural Law. Ex. Duty to attend
Ex. Duty to serve worship services
God or the duty to or the duty to pay
preserve life. taxes.
 SIX KINDS OF DUTY

3. AFFIRMATIVE DUTY 4. NEGATIVE DUTY

Moral obligation of a Moral obligation of a

person to avoid or omit
person to do an act.
something.

Ex. Do good, give alms Ex. Do not kill, cheat, lie,

to needy, etc. steal, etc.
 SIX KINDS OF DUTY

5. PERFECT DUTY 6. IMPERFECT DUTY

-also called Juridical Duty.  Does not obligate a

- Obliges one under strict person from the
justice. standpoint of justice,
but from the standpoint
of charity or other
Ex. The duty of employer to virtues.
pay just salaries to  Ex. Giving of donations
employees to indigents during
calamities
 EXEMPTION FROM DUTY

1. Common necessity never exempts one from duty.

2. No necessity exempts one from a negative natural duty.
3. Extreme or grave necessity exempts one from
affirmative natural duty, provided there is no involved
violation of negative natural law; and
4. Extreme or grave necessity exempts one from the
injunction (carrying out) of positive law as long as there is
no involved violation of negative natural law.
Thank you
And
Good Day
 QUIZ
1. CAN A PERSON INVOKE A RIGHT TO
KILL AN AGGRESSOR IN CASE OF
SELF-DEFENSE? WHY? (5 POINTS)

6-10. GIVE AT LEAST FIVE EXAMPLES

OF
YOUR RIGHT AS AN INDIVIDUAL.