 The inherited term ‘right’ (ius) is ambiguous, says Pufendorf, and it sometimes stands for law (lex). Though it may also be classed as a passive moral quality (as in allowing someone rightly [recte] to receive things), it is active insofar as it permits us to command persons and possess things. It is similar, in the latter respect, to power or authority (potestas), which is subdivided into four types depending on whether it is wielded over persons or things – either one’s own or those of others. Authority over one’s own person and actions is freedom (libertas), and over those of others sovereignty (imperium); moral power over one’s own things is ownership or dominion (dominium), and over those of others lordship (servitus). Each kind of power may be acquired, lost, or held in certain ways: for example, the efficacy or strength of authority may be ‘perfect’ (complete, exceptionless, enforceable) or ‘imperfect’ (limited, flexible, merely hortatory or desirable), as may the force of rights; and the rest of DJN is essentially an account of how this occurs in the different areas (spaces, or states) of life. The influence of Pufendorf’s distinctions and their exhaustive application to particular life sectors was enormous, creating the basic scaffolding of modern moral discourse. (See Hruschka [2015 et alia].)