Directions: I to X: Each set of questions in this section are based on the passage. The questions are to be
answered on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage. Choose the most appropriate response
that accurately and completely answer the question.
I. Wesley Hohfeld, a Harvard law professor in the
early part of the 20th Century, developed an
analytical framework for understanding interests
in property. Hohfeld’s eight terms are arranged in
two tables of ‘correlatives’ and ‘opposites’ that
structure the internal relationships among the
different fundamental legal rights.
Jural Opposites:
A privilege is the opposite of a duty; a no-right is
the opposite of a right. A disability is the opposite
of a power; an immunity is the opposite of a
liability.
Jural Correlatives:
“Correlatives” signifies that these interests exist
on opposing sides of a pair of persons involved in
a legal relationship. If someone has a right, it
exists with respect to someone else who has a
duty. If someone has a privilege, it exists with
respect to someone else who has no-right. If
someone has a power, it exists with respect to
someone else who has a liability. If someone has
an immunity, it exists with respect to someone
else who has a disability.
A right can be enforced by a lawsuit against the
person who has the correlative duty. A privilege
negates that right and duty, and typically would
be asserted as an affirmative defense in the
lawsuit. A power is the capacity to create or
change a legal relationship. For example, when
someone makes an offer of a contract, that gives
the offeree the power to create a contract by
accepting the offer (or not). If the power to create
the contract is exercised, then both parties have
rights and duties with respect to each other.
Courts have power, only if plaintiffs or prosecutors
exercise their power to commence a lawsuit.
Sovereign states are immune because courts lack
power over them, in which case courts are said
to have a disability with respect to sovereigns.
If I “own” property it means that I have various
rights with respect to the thing constituting my
property–the “bundle” of sticks or rights. I probably
have the right to exclude and everyone else in the
world has a correlative duty not to use my property.
Some people may have a privilege, however, as
to fly over it. I also have power with respect to my
property because I can create rights in others, as
by transferring some or all of the property to them,
as by creating an easement, which gives the
grantee certain rights vis-a-vis others and certain
rights and privileges vis-a-vis me.
