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RIGHT OF HABITATION Definition & Legal Meaning

Definition & Citations:

created by law and depend upon civilized society; or they are those which are plainly assured by natural law (Borden v. State, 11 Ark. 519, 44 Am. Dec. 217); or those which, by fair deduction from the present physical, moral, social, and religious characteristics of man, he must be invested with, and which he ought to have realized for him in a jural society, in order to fulfill the euds to which his nature calls him. 1 Woolsey, Polit. Science, p. 20. Such are the rights of life, liberty, privacy, and good reputation. See Black, Const. Law (3d Ed.) 523. Civil rights are such as belong to every citizen of the state or country, or, in a wider seuse, to all its inhabitants, and are not connected with the organization or administra- tion of government. They include the rights of property, marriage, protection by the laws, freedom of contract, trial by jury, etc. See Winnett v. Adams, 71 Neb. 817, 99 N. W. 081. Or, as otherwise defined, civil rights are rights appertaining to a person iu virtue of his citizenship in a state or community. Bights capable of being enforced or redressed in a civil action. Also a term applied to certain rights secured to citizens of the United States by the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments to the constitution, and by various acts of congress made in pursuance thereof. Iowa v. Railroad Co. (C. C.) 37 Fed. 498, 3 L. R. A. 554; State v. Powers, 51 N. J. Law, 432, 17 Atl. 909; Bowles v. Ilabermann, 95 N. Y. 247; People v. Washington, 30 Cal. 05S; Fletcher v. Tuttle, 151 111. 41, 37 N. E. 083, 25 L. R. A. 143, 42 Am. St. Rep. 220; llronek v. People, 134 111. 139, 24 N. E. 801, 8 L. R. A. 837, 23 Am. St Rep. 052. Political rights consist in the power to participate, directly or indirectly, in the estab- lishment or administration of government, such as the right of citizenship, that of suf- frage, the right to hold public office, and the right of petition. See Black Const. Law (3d Ed.) 524; Winnett v. Adams, 71 Neb. 817, 99 N. W. 081. Personal rights is a term of rather vague import, but generally it may be said to mean the right of personal security, comprising those of life, limb, body, health, reputation, and the right of personal liberty. Ai an adjective, the term “right” means just, morally correct, consonant with ethical principles or rules of positive law. It is the opposite of wrong, unjust illegal. “Right” is used in law, as well as in ethics, as opposed to “wrong.” Thus, a person may acquire a title by wrong. In old English law. The term denoted an accusation or charge of crime. Fitzh. Nat Brev. 66 F. See, also, DROIT; JUS; RECHT. Other compound and descriptive terms. Base right. In Scotch law, a subordinate right; the right of a subvassal in the lands held by him. Bell.

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