Fundamental Legal Concepts

Question 1

What scheme is used to analyse rights and other legal terms?

Answer 1

Wesley N Hohfeld ‘Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning’ (1913, 1917)

Question 2

What will a complete statement of a legal position contain?

Answer 2

(a) the person holding the position
(b) the actual position
(c) the action that is the content of the position
(d) the other person relative to whom the position is held

Question 3

‘Audrey has, towards Benedict, a duty to pay him £50’

Name what Audrey’s duty is relative to?

Answer 3

(a) Benedict

(b) the actin of paying him £50

Question 4

‘Audrey has, towards Benedict, a duty to pay him £50’

Name the correlative side of this legal relation.

Answer 4

‘Benedict has, against Audrey, a right to be paid £50’

Question 5

What is a claim right?

Answer 5

• right in the strict sense of the word
• always concerns an action or omission by someone else
• correlative of a further

Question 6

‘Audrey has, towards Benedict, a duty to pay him £50’

Negate this sentence

Answer 6

‘It is not the case that Audrey has, towards Benedict, a duty to pay him £50’

Question 7

The negation of a legal position is…

Answer 7

• a legal position itself

- known as liberty or privilege

Question 8

How is the term liberty applied?

Answer 8

• the negation of a duty to do something is a liberty not to do it
• the negation of a duty not to do something is a liberty to do it

Question 9

‘It is not the case that Audrey has, towards Benedict, a duty to pay him £50’

What could this be reworked as?

Answer 9

‘Audrey has, towards Benedict, a liberty not to pay him £50’

Question 10

Whose action do ‘claim rights’ refer to?

Answer 10

Always refer to someone else’s action (the duty holder)

Question 11

Whose action do ‘liberties’ refer to?

Answer 11

Always refer to the liberty holders own action

Question 12

‘Audrey has, against Benedict, a liberty not not to assault him’

What is the correct formulation of this?

Answer 12

‘Audrey has, against Benedict, a liberty to assault Benedict’

Question 13

What is the correlative position of a duty?

Answer 13

A right

Question 14

What is the contradictory position of a duty?

Answer 14

A liberty not

Question 15

What is the correlative position of a liberty not?

Answer 15

A no-right

Question 16

What is the contradictory position of a no-right?

Answer 16

A right

Question 17

‘A has, towards B, a duty not to hit B below the belt’

What is B’s correlative position?

Answer 17

‘B has, against A, a right not to be hit by A below the belt’

Question 18

‘A has, against B, a right not to be hit by A below the belt’

What is B’s correlative position?

Answer 18

‘B has, towards A, a duty not to hit B below the belt’

Question 19

‘A has, against B, a liberty to hit B according to the rules’

What is B’s correlative position?

Answer 19

‘B has, against A, a no-right not to be hit by A according to the rules’

Question 20

‘A has, against B, a no-right not to be hit according to the rules’

What is B’s correlative position?

Answer 20

‘B has, against A, a liberty to hit A according to the rules’

Question 21

What is the simple definition of a legal relation?

Answer 21

The relation that holds between two persons who occupy correlative positions

Question 22

Is not having a legal position itself, a legal position?

Answer 22

• Yes
• so, when we deny that someone has a certain position, we assert that they have the contradictory position (it is not the case that)

Question 23

Complete the sentence

If I have a right…

Answer 23

Someone else has a duty (vice versa)

Question 24

Complete the sentence

If I have a liberty…

Answer 24

I don’t have a duty

Question 25

According to Holfeldian ethics, what is a multital right?

Answer 25

When the class of duty-holders is indefinite (as in the idea of a right held against “everyone”),
each one of the separate but indefinitely numerous rights is called by Hohfeld a “multital”
right.

Question 26

According to Holfeldian ethics, what is a paucital right?

Answer 26

When someone holds several similar rights against a definite class of duty-holders, each
of those separate rights is called a “paucital” right

Question 27

According to Holfeldian ethics, what is a unital right?

Answer 27

a unique right against a single,

definite person is called a “unital” right

Question 28

Complete the sentence:

The negation of a duty to do something is a _____ to do it

Answer 28

liberty not

Question 29

Complete the sentence:

The negation of a duty not to do something is a _____ to do it

Answer 29

liberty