Who is the owner of a debt in the interval between the death of the creditor intestate and the vesting of his estate in an administrator? Roman law in such a case personified the inheritance itself, and regarded the rights contingently belonging to the heir as presently vested in the inheritance by virtue of its fictitious personality. According to English law before the Judicature Act, 1873, the personal property of an intestate, in the interval between death and the grant of letters of administration, was deemed to be vested in the Judge of the Court of Probate, and it may be assumed that it now vests either in the President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division, or in the Judges of the High Court collectively. But neither the Roman nor the English fiction is essential. There is no difficulty in saying that the estate of an intestate is presently owned by an incerta persona, namely by him who is subsequently appointed the administrator of it. The law, however, abhors a temporary vacuum of vested ownership. It prefers to regard all rights as presently vested in some determinate person, subject, if need be, to be divested on the happening of the event on which the title of the contingent owner depends.[[178]]
Certain writers define the object of a right with such narrowness that they are forced to the conclusion that there are some rights which have no objects. They consider that the object of a right means some material thing to which it relates; and it is certainly true that in this sense an object is not an essential element in the conception. Others admit that a person, as well as a material thing, may be the object of a right; as in the case of a husband’s right in respect of his wife, or a father’s in respect of his children. But they go no further, and consequently deny that the right of reputation, for example, or that of personal liberty, or the right of a patentee, or a copyright, has any object at all.
The truth seems to be, however, that an object is an essential element in the idea of a right. A right without an object in respect of which it exists is as impossible as a right without a subject to whom it belongs. A right is, as we have said, a legally protected interest; and the object of the right is the thing in which the owner has this interest. It is the thing, material or immaterial, which he desires to keep or to obtain, and which he is enabled to keep or to obtain by means of the duty which the law imposes on other persons. We may illustrate this by classifying the chief kinds of rights by reference to their objects.
(1) Rights over material things.—In respect of their number and variety, and of the great mass of legal rules relating to them, these are by far the most important of legal rights. Their nature is too familiar to require illustration.
(2) Rights in respect of one’s own person.—I have a right not to be killed, and the object of this right is my life. I have a right not to be physically injured or assaulted, and the object of this right is my bodily health and integrity. I have a right not to be imprisoned save in due course of law; the object of this right is my personal liberty—that is to say, my power of going where I will. I have a right not to be coerced or deceived into acting contrary to my desires or interests; the object of this right is my ability to fulfil my desires and protect and promote my interests by my own activities.
(3) The right of reputation.—In a man’s reputation, that is to say, in the good opinion that other persons have of him, he has an interest, just as he has an interest in the money in his pockets. In each case the interest has obtained legal recognition and protection as a right, and in each case the right involves an object in respect of which it exists.
(4) Rights in respect of domestic relations.—Every man has an interest and a right in the society, affections, and security of his wife and children. Any person who without just cause interferes with this interest, as by the seduction of his wife or daughter, or by taking away his child, is guilty of a violation of his rights. The wrongdoer has deprived him of something which was his, no less than if he had robbed him of his purse.
(5) Rights in respect of other rights.—In many instances a right has another right as its subject-matter. I may have a right against A., that he shall transfer to me some right which is now vested in himself. If I contract with him for the sale of a piece of land to me, I acquire thereby a right against him, that he shall so act as to make me the owner of certain rights now belonging to himself. By the contract I acquire a right to the right of ownership, and when the conveyance has been executed, I acquire the right of ownership itself. Similarly a promise of marriage vests in the woman a right to the rights of a wife; but the marriage vests in her those rights themselves.[[179]]
It is commonly a question of importance, whether the right acquired by an agreement or other transaction is merely a right to a right, or is one having something else than another right as its immediate object. If I buy a ton of coal or a flock of sheep, the right which I thereby acquire may be of either of these kinds according to circumstances. I may become forthwith the owner of the coal or the sheep; that is to say, my right may have these material things as its immediate and direct object. On the other hand, I may acquire merely a right against the seller, that he by delivery or otherwise shall make me the owner of the things so purchased. In this case I acquire a right which has, as its immediate and direct object, nothing more than another right; though its mediate and indirect object may be said, truly enough, to be the material things purchased by me.
(6) Rights over immaterial property.—Examples of these are patent rights, copyrights, trade-marks, and commercial good-will. The object of a patent-right is an invention, that is to say, the idea of a new process, instrument, or manufacture. The patentee has a right to the exclusive use of this idea. Similarly the object of literary copyright is the form of literary expression produced by the author of a book. In this he has a valuable interest by reason of the disposition of the public to purchase copies of the book, and by the Copyright Act this interest has been raised to the level of a legal right.