purchases a horse he becomes the subject of a right in the horse. The subjects of the corresponding duties are persons in general; for such property rights as arise from the purchase are rights against everyone. The duty imposed is one not to interfere with the owner's exclusive use and enjoyment of the horse; and the horse is the object of the right.

26. The classification of rights-Rights in rem and in personam.—The most important classification of legal rights is based on the incidence of the corresponding duties-whether they bind people generally or only particular persons. In the example above, the right of ownership involved was one which imposed an obligation on all persons not to infringe upon the owner's interests in the horse. Such a right, good against persons generally, is called a right in rem (literally, a right in respect of a thing). If now the owner of the horse hires it out to X for X's use, his interest in the contract is legally protected by a right available not generally, but only against X, a particular person. This right is called a right in personam (literally, a right against or in respect to a person).11 The importance of this distinction is well pointed out by Mr. Salmond:12

"The law confers upon me a greater advantage in

11 The literal meaning of the terms is apt to cause confusion without a rather complicated explanation of the history of their application to the rights. It is perhaps unfortunate that the use of the terms is so general in the vocabulary of the law that others cannot well be substituted for them. The student must hold fast to the real distinction involved rather than to the literal meaning of the Latin phrases: a right in rem is a right against men in general; a right in personam against one or more particular individuals.

12 Salmond, Jurisprudence (3rd ed.), § 81.

protecting my interests against all persons than in protecting them only against one or two. The right of a patentee, who has a monopoly as against all the world, is much more valuable than the right of him who purchases the good will of a business and is protected only against the competition of his vendor. If I buy a chattel, it is an important question whether my interest in it is forthwith protected against everyone, or only against him who sells it

to me.

The main purpose of mortgages and other forms of real security is to supplement the imperfections of a personal right by the superior advantages inherent in a right of the other class. Furthermore, these two kinds of rights are necessarily very different in respect of the modes of their creation and extinction. The indeterminate incidence of the duty which corresponds to a real right, renders impossible many modes of dealing with it which are of importance in the case of personal rights."

A substantially similar primary classification of rights is that made by Blackstone,13 who divides rights of persons into absolute and relative. Absolute rights he defines as those which belong to men merely as individuals, and which every man is entitled to enjoy whether out of society or in it. Relative rights are those incident to men as members of society and standing in various relations with each other. Under the former class he includes what he calls the primary rights of personal security, personal liberty, and private property, and certain auxiliary rights designed to preserve the principal ones 131 Blackstone, Commentaries, pp. 124 and following.

from violation. Under relative rights he classifies the rights which arise out of public relations to the government, and private relations of which he enumerates master and servant, husband and wife, parent and child, guardian and ward, and relations with corporations. This analysis of relative rights is obviously unsatisfactory, since it fails to take into account such important legal relations as contract and quasi-contract. The underlying idea of the classification into absolute and relative rights has, however, been elaborated by others, notably by Professor Langdell,11 who follows Blackstone in calling the rights of personality and property absolute rights, but defines relative rights as those which arise from duties or obligations owed by determinate persons.

27. The classification of rights, continued-Primary and remedial rights.-Another important classification of rights is that into primary and remedial rights. Primary rights are conferred and recognized by law for the protection of interests generally. Once these rights are created they themselves become interests, for the fulfillment of which the law creates a secondary line of rights properly called remedial. Thus, A has a right in rem to the undisturbed enjoyment of his land, and a right in personam to the fulfillment of his contract with B. These rights are primary. But if X trespasses on the land, or B breaks the contract, a secondary right is conferred by law on A to protect his interest in his primary right. Indeed, even if the wrong of X

14 Langdell, A Brief Survey of Equity Jurisdiction, pp. 219-259, especially at 219-222 and 229, 239-240.

or B is merely a threatened one, a preventive remedial right will be granted to forestall injury to the interest in the primary right.

These secondary rights are, then, either preventive or curative, depending on whether the violation of the primary right is merely imminent or has already taken place. The chief forms of preventive rights are the process of binding over to keep the peace and the process of injunction. Curative rights may be specific or compensatory. Specific relief aims at the production or reinstatement of the condition which would have existed had the violated primary right been fulfilled. Thus, if X has taken wrongful possession of A's property, the law may give A a right to restitution; or if B refuses to turn over to A land which he has contracted to sell to A, the law may compel from him a specific performance of his contract. Compensatory relief substitutes for the primary right which has been violated pecuniary compensation for the loss the violation has caused the owner of the right. Thus, if B, who has contracted to paint A's portrait, refuses to do so, the law will give A pecuniary damages by way of compensation. It is obvious that these three forms of remedial right are not all equally effective. The only entirely adequate one is the preventive remedy; specific redress comes next, and compensatory relief is often only a rough approximation to a protection of the interest involved.

28. The law of procedure-Adjective and substantive law. Not only is it necessary for a legal system to define the interests which it will recognize

and protect, and the rights and duties by which it will effect these ends, but it must also provide a regular and orderly procedure to govern the legal process through which this administration of justice according to law shall attain its purpose in the individual cases presented to the courts for decision. This normally involves, first, the provision of a method by which the parties whose conflicting interests require adjustment may come or be brought before the court for the hearing and decision of their case; second, a method by which the exact question or questions at issue between the parties to the suit may be definitely formulated for decision (pleading); third, a method by which the trial of this issue may be conducted in a way best adapted to securing a just decision, especially how the facts necessary for such decision may be introduced and proved (evidence), and how the legal arguments which may help the court in arriving at its decision may be presented; fourth, a method of formulating and promulgating the decision; and fifth, a method of executing this decision by the force of the state if it is not voluntarily obeyed by the parties. The law thus governing the means by which the administration of justice according to law attains its ends is the law of procedure, or, as it is often termed, adjective law. It is thus contrasted with the substantive law, the law which deals with the purpose and subject matter of the legal system.