Personal rights

Personal rights are the rights that a person has over their own body. In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, personal rights are defined as "rights (as of personal security, personal liberty, and private property) appertaining to the person".^[1] Among personal rights are associated rights to protect and safeguard the body, most obviously protected by the torts of assault and battery. Furthermore, aspects of personality, such as a person's reputation and honour, are protected by the tort of defamation, legislation protecting the privacy of individuals, and freedom of movement.

In English land law, a personal right (from the Latin ius in personam) refers to the permission to use land for a specific purpose that is personal to the owner and which cannot bind future purchasers of the land. A personal right is thus distinct from a proprietary (property) right (ius in rem) which refers to a right that affects the land itself, such as a freehold or leasehold.