Categories of subject rights, duties and obligations in South Africa's law Philani Lithandane Ndlovu

South African law recognises several categories of subject rights, duties and obligations. These include rights over things which may be res corporales and res incorporales, personal rights, intellectual property rights and rights regarding aspects of personality. A fifth type of right has been suggested though not yet fully accepted, namely, a personal immaterial property right.
Rights and duties form the bedrock of the law and legal systems. Legal subjects are bearers of legal rights and legal duties. A right is a claim or entitlement that a legal person holds in respect of a legal object. A legal object is a thing or entity over which a legal person can hold a claim or right. Legal subjects hold subjective rights over legal objects such as things, personal claims for performance, intellectual property as well as personality rights.
Rights held on things are real rights or in rem rights which are multital in nature, being enforceable against everyone in the world. They include ownership, possession, servitudes, real security such as mortgage and pledge. Ownership or dominion is the most comprehensive real right that a person can holder over a thing, often expressed as an unlimited real right. Other rights such as servitudes are limited real rights held by one person in respect of property of another. They are jura in re aliena.
Personal rights are based expectations of performance emanating in terms of the law of obligations such as contract, delict, inheritance, family law and enrichment actions. One person, a creditor is entitled to delivery of performance by another, a debtor to in pursuit of an obligation arising from a legally relevant juristic act. Personal rights are paucital in that the holder of the right is entitled to make a claim from a determinate or few determinate persons instead of the whole world.
Creators of intellectual property including books, computer programs, inventions, designs and trade symbols hold rights over the products of their creative minds. Copyright, patents and trade marks are among the rights protectable under the intellectual property rights regime.
There are many other rights based on the protection of aspects of one's personality. Bodily and physical integrity is protected as does psychological integrity of a person. The right to a good name, reputation, dignity e.t.c constitute the personality rights of an individual.
Rights and duties exist as jural opposites and jural correlatives. For instance, the existence of a right for one person imposes a duty on others who are obligated to respect the right of the holder so as to enable undisturbed enjoyment of the rights. A right of ownership may be accompanied by a jural correlative such as the privilege to use, consume the fruit or even destroy the thing owned.
An appreciation of these categories of rights or claims is essential for the understanding of the operation of the law in general.

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