• What is objective law?
• Characteristics of the objective right
• Examples of objective law
• Objective law and subjective law

We explain what objective law is and its main characteristics. In addition, examples and differences with the subjective right.

The objective right includes the norms that the state is responsible for enforcing.

What is objective law?

Objective right is understood as the set of rules, ordinances and laws that prescribe an obligation, that is, that impose a conduct or legal resolution to a situation or persons determined. They are the legal forms that impose active obligations (obligation to do) or passive obligations (obligation not to do) on companies. It is distinguished from subjective right.

Companies are governed by legal norms mandatory, which we know as laws. And the Condition is in charge of enforcing them, through a repressive apparatus that confers the monopoly of the violence, that is, through the forces of public order (police, army, etc.) and indoctrination institutions (propaganda, school, etc.).

Characteristics of the objective right

The objective right, as coercive law, that is, that generates obligations, can have two origins:

• The natural law. What is the set of rights derived from the human condition itself.
• The positive law. Instead, it responds to the specific legal system of a nation, printed in your Magna Carta or your fundamental document.

On the other hand, the objective right can be of a written type (that contained in laws, codes, regulations and national constitutions) or customary (reestablished by custom).

Examples of objective law

Traffic regulations are part of the objective law.

They are manifestations of objective right:

• What is established in the National Constitution of each country.
• The criminal, civil and public order codes that govern the daily conduct of the citizens.
• The military laws that are imposed on a nation during a military event and that oblige the defense of the homeland.
• Traffic regulations, fiscal responsibility, etc.

Objective law and subjective law

The fundamental difference between objective law and subjective right has to do with the nature of their norms:

• The objective right. It governs the conduct of individuals through the imposition of obligations of some kind, which must be accepted by them and reinforced by the State (that is, they are coercive).
• The subjective right. On the contrary, it governs the agreements between citizens, as stipulated by mutually agreed agreements such as the contractsIn other words, it must be constructed based on a legal norm.

This distinction can also be explained as follows: objective law comprises the legal norms that govern life in society; while the subjective right includes the permissions and functions derived from said objective rule.

For example, the freedom of expression It is a subjective right, since it has its limits and is exercised at the discretion of each person. For its part, the objective legal norm that establishes its limits, responsibilities and eventual consequences of its abuse, is part of the set of obligations established in writing in a legal regulation.