This article was written by Shidarta and published in the Constitutional Magazine.

This article was originally prepared as part of a book to be published on the initiative of the Center for Human Rights Studies, Islamic University of Indonesia (Pusham UII) Yogyakarta. This draft will certainly not be entirely the same as the contents of the book (a collection of writings with other authors) which is expected to be launched in 2022. One of the materials in the article highlights the relationship between human rights and civil law. Based on this background, this article leads us to a perennial theme in the philosophy of law, namely about rights and obligations.

In legal studies, it is very common for us to juxtapose the concept of rights with obligations. Apeldoorn traces these two concepts by saying that they are two sides of one legal relationship. As if when there is a right on one side, there is an obligation on the other side (arising reflexively). Kelsen provides a slightly different explanation, saying that the configuration of rights and obligations is related to the relationship between law and morality. In the book “Pure Theory of Law” (Chapter IV Section 29), Kelsen states that morality always prioritizes obligations, while law always prioritizes rights.

In German and Dutch, the words “hak” and “hukum” (both meaning 'right' or 'law') do use the same…