ABSTRACT
For some jurists, the essence of law is to be discovered in the enunciation, interpretation and protection of rights. They view jurisprudence as ‘the science of rights’, involving a search for a unified theory of the nature and significance of rights within legal systems. ‘Law’ is considered from this point of view as involving little more than recognition by the courts of rights and correlative duties, together with procedural systems aimed at the resolution of disputes stemming largely from the consequences of failing to acknowledgerights, that is tosay, failingtocarryoutduties. Jurists of this persuasion would view the separate sections of the substantive law-contract, torts, succession, etc-as, fundamentally, sets of rights related to particular types of social activity and grouped solely for purposes of convenience.
