Article II. On the Nature of Right

Right, in the broader sense, is taken 1st. for skill in law, or jurisprudence; 2nd. for law or the rule of the just, and thus there is said to be natural right, positive, human, civil, canonical right, the right of nations, etc.; 3rd. for the sentence of a judge, and hence the word judge, as if one saying right. - But in the stricter sense, and taken actively, right is the legitimate power which someone has concerning his own thing or to a thing owed to him; but passively it is the same as what is just and equitable, or is that which is owed to one having such a power on account of that very power. - Therefore passive right is the debt itself; active right is the title or reason of the debt.

Right is chiefly divided into right in a thing and right to a thing. Right in a thing is that by which someone has the thing itself obligated to himself. This right confers a real action, which namely immediately touches the thing itself; wherefore whoever enjoys this right can reclaim his thing wherever it has passed. But right to a thing is that which someone has, that the thing become his, or that the thing be obligated to him. It gives a personal action against one impeding the acquisition of the thing; whence it is called personal right, because it immediately touches the person.