Law is a code of conduct that stipulates people's rights and obligations. Its main spirit is to emphasize the unity of rights and obligations. To correctly treat the relationship between rights and obligations, citizens should not only exercise the rights and fulfill the obligations entrusted by law, but also form a correct sense of citizenship, defend their legitimate rights with socialist law as a weapon, while enjoying the rights owned by individuals, they should not forget to respect and recognize the legitimate rights and interests of others and fulfill their obligations to the country, society and the other party.

First, the concept of rights and obligations The so-called rights refer to the legal freedom and control of behavior owned by the subject of rights in a certain social relationship. The so-called obligation refers to the behavior constraint that the obligor should carry out according to the requirements of the right subject in a certain social relationship.

Second, the issue of rights and obligations.

(1) What is the law? You should know that rights and obligations are put forward relative to the law. Every law has its scope of application, the objects and groups it applies to, so the rights and obligations of the applicant itself are relative. Before discussing the relationship between rights and obligations, we must first make clear what is law: the law is formulated or recognized by the state, guaranteed by the state's coercive force, and its content is a universally binding social norm that stipulates the rights and obligations of the parties. From the definition of law, we can also see the words "right" and "obligation", which fully illustrates the importance of rights and obligations in law. This article will discuss the relationship between rights and obligations, how to correctly handle the relationship between them and how to treat it. Today's era is a society ruled by law, and the rule of law is emphasized everywhere. Rights and obligations are absolutely inseparable for society, social organizations, especially individual citizens. Therefore, "in a sense, the legal society is a contractual society, and it is inevitable to conclude contracts in both daily life and economic exchanges." In an inappropriate way, such as comparing the law to a contract or a paper contract, then both parties to the contract should take the principle of "mutual benefit", not only giving the other party due rights and interests, but also fulfilling corresponding obligations, so that a "contract" based on this will show its fairness.

(2) Simply talking about rights and obligations: In today's society, we advocate laws and have enacted various laws, but every law cannot be separated from rights and obligations, which once again illustrates the importance of rights and obligations in the law. Literally, the rights and obligations in the law are very abstract. Even if you are willing to look up the concepts of "rights" and "obligations" in the dictionary, you may not fully understand them, but they will still be abstract. "Right" is different from "power", and the "interest" of "right" obviously represents interest and is closely related to people themselves. The obligation itself is to be fulfilled. As for rights and obligations, we will discuss them in detail next.

(3) Briefly talk about citizens' awareness of rights and obligations: We have been emphasizing the rule of law and civic awareness, and citizens should safeguard their rights. However, we have to admit some social phenomena. Many citizens in our country often only emphasize what rights they enjoy, often ignore what obligations they should perform, and even deliberately avoid corresponding obligations. In such an open and civilized era, this practice is not conducive to the progress of our country, nor to the advancement of governing the country according to law. At the same time, it also fully shows that the legal consciousness and legal concept of Chinese citizens need to be improved. Our citizens only have "right consciousness" and no "obligation consciousness".

Because the understanding of the relationship between rights and obligations itself reflects the legal quality of a citizen and the level of rule of law in a country. Then, we should discuss the relationship between rights and obligations, and let social groups and individual citizens participate.

Third, the relationship between rights and obligations:

(1) Unity of opposites between rights and obligations: From a dialectical point of view, there are differences and connections between the two aspects of contradiction, and they are both opposite and unified. It is unscientific and incomplete to ignore either of them. People pay more attention to the difference, opposition and complementary relationship between rights and obligations, and less attention to the deeper unified relationship between them, that is, the consistency in origin. In fact, obligation is not an alien independent of rights, but a cluster of branches on the tree of rights. It is a special form of right, an objective right, and a right whose subject and content have changed. Only when each right subject does his duty can he realize and safeguard his rights. It can be seen that the true content of the obligation and the goal set by the obligation are still certain rights and interests, and the obligation itself is only the responsibility to realize certain interests and enjoy certain rights. From the perspective of civil law, right is a legal and technical means of interest distribution, while obligation is another technical concept established to normalize this interest distribution (only legitimate interests are allowed), so obligation is set for right. Rights define interests, obligations define rights, and the motivation, purpose, focus and implementation point of obligation setting all revolve around the central axis of right definition and benefit distribution. All kinds of prohibitive norms and mandatory norms in law are not obligations to obligations, but restrictions to restrictions. Its purpose is to prevent people from obtaining illegitimate rights and preventing people's legitimate rights from being violated. Even the legislation of slave owners and many feudal rulers pushed almost all the obligations to the exploited class, and its purpose was to safeguard the rights and interests of the exploited class.

(2) Rights and obligations are interdependent: as the content elements of legal relations, rights and obligations are closely related and inseparable. In legal relations, rights and obligations are interdependent. The existence of obligation is the premise of the existence of right, and the obligee must fulfill the obligation to enjoy the right; Any right must be accompanied by one or more obligations to ensure its realization; The same person is both the subject of rights and the subject of obligations in legal relations. Under certain conditions, the obligee should assume obligations, and the obligor should enjoy rights under certain conditions. In the relationship between rights and obligations, obligations play a leading role, and the fundamental purpose of law is to protect human rights. However, without the support of mandatory norms, rights will exist in name only and laws will become a dead letter. The rationality of obligation determines the rationality of right. If the rationality of the original obligation is lost, or a new reasonable obligation is created, then the existing rights will inevitably change. The realization of rights depends on the performance of obligations, some of which are obtained by others and some of which are obtained by themselves. If you don't fulfill your obligations consciously, you can't get the corresponding rights. Without obligations, rights cease to exist. That is to say, in the contradictory unity of rights and obligations, obligations are in the main aspect and leading position of contradictions, which plays a leading role and determines the existence and realization of rights.

(3) Rights and obligations are independent of each other: rights cannot be regarded as obligations, and obligations cannot be regarded as rights. Confusing the boundary between the two will inevitably lead to legal mistakes. In other words, rights and obligations have their own scope and boundaries. Beyond this limit, it is not protected by law, or even violates the law. Specifically, exceeding authority may constitute "exceeding authority" or "abusing rights", which is illegal. The law also prohibits obligors from doing things beyond the scope of their obligations.

(4) Rights and obligations are corresponding under certain conditions: rights mean the acquisition and realization of interests, and obligations mean the payment and burden of interests; The state of obtaining or paying benefits between different social subjects established by law constitutes that under certain conditions, they can do or not do certain behaviors, or ask others to do or not do certain behaviors. Rights act on people's behavior with its unique interest orientation and incentive mechanism, and obligations act on people's behavior with its unique restraint mechanism and compulsory mechanism, and finally realize the accurate understanding and exercise of different social subjects based on their own rights and obligations.

Fourth, the correct view of legal rights and obligations:

(1) Correctly understand the nature of legal rights and legal obligations: legal rights and legal obligations are a pair of closely related concepts, and their basic nature should be viewed from the perspective of interconnection, rather than understanding their respective nature in isolation. From this premise, we can understand the nature of legal rights and legal obligations from three aspects. From the source, legal rights and legal obligations generally come from the explicit provisions of the law, or although there is no explicit provision in the law, they can be deduced from the provisions of the law. The latter legal rights and obligations are usually called implied or presumed rights and obligations. From the scope, there is a clear boundary between legal rights and legal obligations. First of all, the types and scope of rights and obligations stipulated by law are restricted by social material living conditions, political civilization and cultural development level, and are limited by social affordability. Secondly, every legal right and legal obligation has legal boundaries. The exercise of rights and the performance of obligations should be carried out within the scope of law. Article 5 1 of China's Constitution clearly stipulates: "When exercising their freedoms and rights, the people of China and citizens of China shall not harm the interests of the state, society or the collective or the legitimate freedoms and rights of other citizens."

(2) Correctly grasp the relationship between legal rights and legal obligations: From the perspective of legal history and practice, there are many complicated relationships between legal rights and legal obligations. Generally speaking, the relationship between legal rights and legal obligations can be summarized into three aspects: structural correlation, complete equivalence and functional complementarity. Legal rights and legal obligations are the unity of opposites. Legal rights and obligations, one represents the interests and the other represents the burden; They are two separate and opposite components and factors in law, and they are two mutually exclusive opposites. At the same time, they are interdependent and interrelated. The existence and development of one party must be conditional on the existence and development of the other party. It can be said that there is no right without obligation, and there is no obligation without right.

(3) Know how to correctly exercise legal rights and fulfill legal obligations: the exercise of rights should be legal. First, exercise rights according to law and do not abuse rights. According to the Constitution, the people of China and citizens of China shall not harm the interests of the state, society and the collective or the legitimate freedoms and rights of other citizens when exercising their freedoms and rights. For example, citizens enjoy freedom of speech according to law, but they are not allowed to make statements that violate constitutional principles, insult and slander others through their statements, and so on; There has never been and will never be so-called absolute freedom without any restrictions in the world. As a right, freedom is not only restricted by social, economic and cultural conditions, but also by law. Because everyone lives in a specific social group, we must never do whatever we want regardless of the interests of others. Whoever wants to enjoy freedom must obey the law. Second, safeguard their legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law. When your legitimate rights and interests are illegally violated, you should learn to take up legal weapons to protect your rights, rather than submit to humiliation or solve them by irrational means.

The fulfillment of obligations should be consciously stipulated in Article 33 of our Constitution: "Any citizen shall enjoy the rights stipulated by the Constitution and laws, and at the same time must fulfill the obligations stipulated by the Constitution and laws." The Constitution not only gives citizens a wide range of rights, but also stipulates the obligations that citizens should perform. Every citizen must faithfully perform the obligations stipulated in the Constitution and laws as a master of the country, establish a correct view of rights and obligations, cultivate socialist civic awareness, and consciously perform their obligations. The requirement for citizens to fulfill their obligations is consciousness. How to be conscious? If it is only out of fear of punishment or the habit of obeying authority, it will inevitably perform its obligations passively. Once there is no supervision or it is possible to evade punishment, there will naturally be phenomena of failing to perform legal obligations and evading legal obligations. To change this situation, we must establish a new concept of abiding by the law, that is, fulfilling legal obligations is the basic social responsibility of citizens. Only in this way can we enhance our awareness of obeying the law. Rights and obligations are the core content of the legal system. In practice, the concept of legal rights and obligations is an important link in the cultivation of citizens' legal awareness. How to treat citizens' rights correctly and how to fulfill their obligations is to explain the socialist concept of rule of law established by every citizen in a country ruled by law from the legal point of view. We should be clear about our obligations and rights, understand and grasp the relationship between rights and obligations more deeply, guide citizens' behaviors and activities, maintain social order and promote the rule of law. The law is sacred and solemn, and the rights and obligations within the law are very important. Grasping and handling the relationship between them is of great significance to the country, the collective and the individual, and also conforms to the basic spirit of modern law.

References: [1] Liang Huixing: On Civil and Commercial Law (Volume 19), Law Press, August 20 13; [2] On the Relationship between Rights and Obligations, 2005, 1 1, No.6; [3] kelsen. Theory of Consistency between Law and State, Encyclopedia Press,1996; [4] Selected Works of Marx and Engels (Volume II), People's Publishing House, 1972.