Developed by Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld (Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning, 1913).
Splits the loose word right into four distinct relations (claim, privilege, power, and immunity), each matched by a position someone else holds, to show what is really at stake.
When to reach for it
When a dispute hinges on who has the right to do something, and the word is covering several different claims at once.
How it runs
- State the claimed right in plain words.
- Classify it as a claim, privilege, power, or immunity.
- Name who holds the matching duty, no-right, liability, or disability.
- Swap the classification and see whether the conclusion changes.
- If it does, settle which kind of right is meant first.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning, Yale Law Journal, 1913