What is DUTY? Definition of DUTY in Black's Law Dictionary – Legal dictionary – Glossary of legal terms.
A human action which is exactly conformable to the laws which require us to obey them. Chicago, etc., R. Co. v. Filson, 35 Oki. 89, 91, 128 P. 298.
The words, "it shall be the duty," in ordinary legislation, imply the assertion of the power to command and to coerce obedience. Kentucky v. Dennison, 24 How. 66, 107, 16 L.Ed. 717.
In its use in jurisprudence, this word is the correlative of right. Thus, wherever there exists a right in any person, there also rests a corresponding duty upon some other person or upon all persons generally. But it is also used, in a wider sense, to designate that class of moral obligations which lie outside the jural sphere; such, namely, as rest upon an imperative ethical basis, but have not been recognized by the law as within its proper .province for purposes of enforcement or redress. Thus, gratitude towards a benefactor is a duty, but its refusal will not ground an action. In this meaning "duty" is the equivalent of "moral obligation," as distinguished from a "legal obligation." Harrison v. Bush, 5 El. & Bl. 349.
Duty is considered by some modern ethicists to be the fundamental conception of ethics and to be subject to intuitive knowledge; by others it is conceived as that which is ethically valid because sanctioned by law, society, or religion. Webster, Dict.
As a technical term of the law, "duty" signifies a thing due; that which is due from a person ; that which a person owes to another. An obligation to do a thing. A word of more extensive signification than "debt," although both are expressed by the same Latin word "debitum." Bankers' Deposit Guaranty & Surety Co. v. Barnes, 81 Kan. 422, 105 P. 697, 698. Sometimes, however, the term is used synonymously with debt. Fox v. Hills, 1 Conn. 295, 303.
But in practice it is commonly reserved as the designation of those obligations of performance, care, or observance which rest upon a person in an official or fiduciary capacity; as the duty of an executor, trustee, manager, etc. Goodwine v. Vermilion County, 271 Iii. 126, 110 N.E. 890, 892. It also denotes a tax or impost due to the government upon the importation or exportation of goods.
Judicial Duty. See Judicial.
Legal Duty. See Legal Duty.
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That's the definition of DUTY in Black's Law Dictionary – Legal dictionary – Glossary of legal terms. Courtesy of Cekhukum.com.
