Understanding Subjective Rights in Law: A Comprehensive Guide
Subjective Rights in Law
Definition
Subjective rights are power relationships attached to individuals by law. They empower individuals to seek legal protection and regulate various situations, such as contracts and urban leases.
What Subjective Rights Do
- Legitimize enforceable rights
- Grant legal standing to sue
- Impose obligations on individuals
Example
A landlord is obligated to maintain a property for a tenant’s agreed-upon use. If the landlord fails to meet these obligations, the tenant can file a complaint.
Classification of Subjective Rights
Public Law
Rights directed against the state to enforce a specific provision or recognized right, applicable when there’s no private law relationship.
Private Law
Divided into three categories:
- Personality Rights: Right to honor, image, privacy, name, and surname.
- Family Rights: Rights within a family group, including spousal rights, rights to family contributions, and obligations like alimony.
- Patrimonial Rights: Economic rights often resulting from private relationships like contracts.
Types of Patrimonial Rights
- Credit Law (Personal Rights): Enforceable only between involved parties.
- Real Rights: Originating from contracts and enforceable against third parties (erga omnes).
- Rights of Use: Right to use something to gain necessary experience.
- Rights of Fruit: Right to obtain all benefits derived from something, not just necessities.
- Rights of Room: Right to inhabit a specific place, occupying only the space needed for living.
Absolute vs. Relative Rights
- Absolute Rights: Enforceable against everyone, including real rights over things and personality rights.
- Relative Rights: Enforceable only against specific individuals, primarily related to credit rights and contractual obligations.
Subjects of Individual Rights
- Natural Persons: Individuals
- Legal Persons: Entities like corporations
- Sole Proprietors: Single individuals holding a right
- Co-Holders: Multiple individuals sharing a right
Acquisition and Extinction of Subjective Rights
Acquisition
- Origins: Acquiring a right from a previous holder
- Derivatives: Acquiring a right from a previous owner, which can be constitutive (creating a new right) or translative (transferring an existing right)
- Inter Vivos: Acquisition between living persons
- Mortis Causa: Acquisition through inheritance (testamentary succession)
Modification
- Change in Person: Subrogation, involving a change in ownership
- Change in Thing: Subrogation, involving a change in the object of the right
- Contract Renewal: Changing terms within an existing contract
Extinction
- Fulfillment of Contract: Completing obligations
- Termination of Term or Condition: Reaching a pre-defined end date
- Disappearance of the Thing: The object of the right ceasing to exist
- Waiver: Voluntary relinquishment of a right
Exercise of Rights and Its Limits
Good Faith
Rights must be exercised in accordance with good faith, a socially accepted ethical standard.
Abuse of Law
Using a right in a way that exceeds normal limits and harms a third party, even if the action itself is not explicitly prohibited.
Time Limits of the Exercise of Rights
Prescription
- Usucapión (Acquisitive Prescription): Acquiring a right through continuous, peaceful, public, and uninterrupted possession over time.
- Extinctive Prescription: Losing the right to claim a right due to inaction over time.
Expiry
The expiration of a right after a predetermined period.