Legal Theory and Concepts
Introductory
Claim-Right
A legal position in which one person is entitled to have another person act or refrain from acting in a specified way.
Why It Matters
A claim-right is meaningful only by reference to a correlative duty. In corporate, securities, and financial law, the question is often whether a statute, contract, fiduciary rule, or regulatory standard gives an actor an enforceable claim against another actor.
Selected Literature
A short list of directly relevant archive entries.
1913
Introductory
Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning
Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld
Yale Law Journal
1917
Introductory
Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning
Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld
Yale Law Journal
Related Cases
1997
Securities Regulation
United States v. O'Hagan
521 U.S. 642 (1997)
Misappropriation theory of insider trading and tender-offer fraud rules.
1928
Foundations of Law and Economics
Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co.
248 N.Y. 339, 162 N.E. 99 (1928)
Duty, foreseeability, and the legal boundary placed on liability for an extended chain of accidental harm.
1939
Corporate Law
Guth v. Loft, Inc.
5 A.2d 503 (Del. 1939)
Duty of loyalty and a corporate officer's appropriation of an opportunity connected to the corporation's business and resources.
1963
Securities Regulation
SEC v. Capital Gains Research Bureau, Inc.
375 U.S. 180 (1963)
Whether an investment adviser's undisclosed practice of trading before and after its recommendations could be enjoined under the Investment Advisers Act.