Study On Hohfeld’s "Privilege"

Hohfeld’s Right Theory has its unique significance and profound effect on the researchhistory of legal right. Hohfeld created eight “Fundamental Legal Concepts” which gatheredopposition from various sides. There have no exact conclusions on these disputes, includinghow to interpret those concepts, whether they strictly follow the Hohfeld’s design and havelegal practical significance? The key to solving those questions lies in how to interpret“privilege” in those eight concepts. There are not a lot of essays on Hohfeld in China and fewof them are specialized in studying “privilege”. Therefore, this paper attempts to expound theoriginal intention and intendment of Hohfeld’s “privilege” from three aspects, including logic,connotation and legality, reveal Hohfeld’s unique way of treating legal concepts andmeanwhile clarify the importance of Hohfeld’s consciousness of problems.The introduction of this paper introduces Hohfeld’s life and his works and elaborates thevalue of this thesis and relevant research status at home and abroad. Then it illustrates thewriting features and difficulties of this paper. At last, it introduces the writing ideas of thispaper concisely.The fist chapter of this paper starts with the logical relationship of “privilege” given byHohfeld and mainly analyzes the “correlative” and “opposite” relationship of “privilege”.Firstly, it proves that “privilege” is a kind of jural relations, which is also the basis of thispaper. Then it demonstrates what the jural relation of “privilege” is like. At last, it expoundswhat the logic significance of Hohfeld’s relationship schedule is after making a briefsummary of the demonstration in this part.The second chapter of this paper centers on predecessors’ argument about Hohfeld’s“privilege” which is also known as questioning the quality of “privilege” as a “FundamentalLegal Concept”. The author will discuss those questions by dividing them into two aspects:firstly, discuss whether “privilege” has “fundamentality”. In other word, whether “privilege”can be reduced by other legal concepts. The author compares “privilege” to “right” withwhich “privilege” is most easily confused and draws the conclusion that “privilege” indeedhas its irreplaceable significance; secondly, discuss whether “privilege” has legal character. Inother word, what the legal sense of the jural relationship represented by “privilege” is. Theauthor compares “privilege” and “liberty” and defines that “privilege” has its legal character.The third chapter of this paper mainly compares “privilege” with several words which have the similar definition and analyzes how the word of “privilege” was chosen by Hohfeld.In the final conclusion part of this paper, the author makes a summary, expounds what“privilege” is and summarizes all the concepts. Finally, the author comes back to Hohfeld’sconsciousness of problems and analyzes its significance and value.