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Jural rights is a doctrine ofKentucky law that prevents thelegislature (and presumably thejudiciary as well) from eliminatingcommon lawcauses of action that existed at the time the currentKentucky Constitution was instituted.
The doctrine of jural rights is based on a concerted reading of the following sections of the Kentucky Constitution:
The doctrine was announced inLudwig v. Johnson, 243 Ky. 533, 49 S.W.2d 347 (1932). InLudwig, a statute prohibiting a non-paying passenger from suing the operator fornegligence was found unconstitutional. The doctrine has been upheld several times since then, but remains the subject of criticism that it is a judicial fiction.
The doctrine was reaffirmed inWilliams v. Wilson, 972 S.W.2d 260 (Ky. 1998), where the court invalidated a statute requiring a finding of intent for punitive damages to be available. The court reasoned thatpunitive damages were available for gross negligence in 1891 (when the Constitution took effect), and that themalice requirement of the statute in question effectively banned a cause of action based on negligence.
