Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

absolute duty

A duty to which no corresponding right attaches. ( According to John Austin's legal philosophy, there are four kinds of absolute duties: (1) duties not regarding persons (such as those owed to God and to lower animals), (2) duties owed to persons indefinitely (i.e., to the community as a whole), (3) self-regarding duties (such as the duty not to commit suicide), and (4) duties owed to the sovereign. 1 John Austin, The Providence of Jurisprudence Determined 400 (Sarah Austin ed., 2d ed. 1861).