Page:Henry Osborn Taylor, A Treatise on the Law of Private Corporations (5th ed, 1905).djvu/445

 CHAP. VIII.] CORPORATION AND STATE. [§ 444. right is in every case the force which is lent it by the state. Anything else may be the occasion, but it is not the cause of its obligatory character." 1 And Austin says again: "A party has a right when another, or others, are bound or obliged by the law to do or forbear towards or in regard to him." 2 § 443. A right then, with its corresponding duty or liabil- ity, constitutes a legal relation, which, as it was at- ^ _ . J ' ° ' ' Definition tempted to show before, 3 rather than a " creature " of a " legal may properly be called a concrete instance or mani- festation of law, subsisting between persons as to whom corre- lated conditions of fact may be asserted. § 444. How do rules of law manifest themselves in legal rela- tions? Let us illustrate. The following, roughly speaking, are rules of law : " to constitute a binding agreement there must be a consideration ; " "a con- tract for the sale of chattels at a price exceeding fifty dollars must be in writing." The two rules may be combined into the following proposition : a written agreement to sell, for which there is a consideration, as for instance an agreement to buy, the state will enforce at the request of either party. 4 This compound rule of law manifests itself in legal relations between A. and B. as soon as the following correlated conditions of fact may be asserted of them : that A. has agreed with B. to sell certain chattels to B. for a specified price (over $50) ; that B. has agreed with A. to buy those chattels of A. at that price : and that this mutual agreement has been put in writing. "With reference to its operation on A. and B. this rule may now be The mani- festation of rules of law in legal re- lations. 1 Jurisprudence, second ed. p. 62. 2 "Pervading Notions Analyzed." Another writer, viewing a right more exclusively from the standpoint of the possessor of it, says : "A legal right is nothing but a permission to exercise certain natural powers, and upon certain conditions to obtain protection, restitution, or compen- sation by the aid of the public force. Just so far as the aid of the public force is given a man, he has a legal right, and this right is the same whether his claim is founded in righteousness or iniquity." Holmes, " The Common Law," p. 214. It is, perhaps, hard to see how a right in personam can be a " permission to exercise certain natural powers." The author seems rather to have in view rights in rem. 3 See § 24, note. 4 For simplicity's sake all refer- ence as to how the state "will enforce the agreement, as by awarding dam- ages or specific performance, is omitted; as is also omitted reference to conditions precedent, which either party may have to perform before he can compel the other to peiform. 425