Rights and Duties (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what rights and duties are in legal sciences, how they differ from each other and the characteristics of each one.

What are rights and duties?

In Legal Sciences and Law, a distinction is made between rights and duties. On the one hand, rights are freedoms and guarantees that society confers on individuals, while duties are obligations and responsibilities that citizens give back to society. Both concepts are a vital part of the exercise of citizenship.

The rights

Normally, People have the rights that are established by law, in accordance with the provisions of the legal text of the Constitution or the Magna Carta of each country. These rights can be:

Assets that is, they are things that individuals are enabled to do or receive at will.
Liabilities that is, they are things that people are guaranteed regardless of whether they want it or not, and regardless of whether they are aware of it or not.

For example, the right to free expression enables people to say what they think and express their opinions without suffering persecution or censorship, while the right to life guarantees that no one can take their life or subject them to conditions in which lose their lives with impunity.

In addition, there are collective and individual rights, fundamental rights (that is, essential and first-class), natural rights (acquired simply by existing) and subjective rights (obtained through contract).

The duties

On the other hand, society imposes on people a set of obligations and responsibilities in accordance with what is established in the law and what is included in the constitutional texts. The State is responsible for demanding compliance with these mandates, through law and public order agencies depending on who and to what extent are affected by them.

Like rights, duties can be of different types, and two categories are mainly distinguished:

The positive duties which force the individual to perform a specific action in a specific way. For example, the obligation to pay taxes is a positive duty that affects all people of working age and active economic status, always in proportion to their income.
The negative duties which on the contrary prevent you from carrying out a specific action. For example, the prohibition of stealing constitutes a negative duty, since the law requires citizens not to commit this crime.

Many legal obligations arise with the signing of a contract or some legal agreement, while other duties are part of the rules of coexistence of society and exist outside of individuals. Duties can also be moral, when they do not depend on the law but on the custom or culture of a people, as is the case with the prohibition of incest.

Differences between rights and duties

rights and duties differences — Disobedience of duties usually carries sanctions such as fines or criminal convictions.

The differences between rights and duties can be summarized as follows:

Homework	Rights
They are obligations and responsibilities whose fulfillment is required by the State, regardless of the will of the individual.	They are freedoms and guarantees that the State offers to individuals. Its compliance may in some cases depend on the will of the people.
Disobedience of duties usually carries proportional sanctions, such as fines or criminal sentences.	Rights may be optional in some cases and inalienable in others, but no one except the law can prevent their fulfillment.
They can be legal or moral, depending on whether they are required by law, or by customs and tradition.	They can be natural (acquired at birth), subjective (acquired through contract) or customary (acquired by custom).
They can consist of obligations (positive duties) or restrictions (negative duties).	They may consist of permissions to do (active rights) or guarantees of certain conditions (passive rights).
They affect all members of society equally, although in a proportionate and consensual manner.	In some cases they affect all members of society equally, in others only those who sign a contract or meet certain requirements.

Examples of rights

The following are examples of rights:

The right to life that is, not to be murdered with impunity.
The right to free movement that is, to go wherever we want when we want, as long as we do not violate the property of others.
The right to free expression that is, to say what we think and communicate through artistic, formal or any other means without suffering censorship or persecution.
The right to identity that is, to have a nationality and the proper legal documents that prove our citizenship.
The right to private property that is, to dispose of an asset through purchase, inheritance or transfer, and to freely dispose of it.
The right to work that is, to carry out one's professions with dignity and in exchange for proportional remuneration, without suffering discrimination of any kind.
The right to education that is, to receive basic formal instruction that allows one to live in society and allows one to continue training later if desired.
The right to freedom that is, not to be unjustly imprisoned or to suffer kidnapping, slavery or be reduced to an oppressive condition in which one cannot freely dispose of one's own destiny.
The right to self-determination of peoples that is, for nations to choose their own destiny through peaceful and legal means without foreign intervention.

Examples of homework

The following are examples of duties:

The duty of pay tribute that is, to pay taxes proportional to our socioeconomic level to contribute to the financing of the State.
The duty of respect traffic rules when driving, so as not to put your own life or the life of others at risk.
The duty of tell the truth when we are under oath and when we are accountable to the State.
The duty of respect other people's property.
The duty of pay debts contracted and to honor contractual obligations.
The duty of respect the freedoms of others and the rights of others.
The duty of preserve the environment.
The duty of report to authorities when a crime is being committed.