Responsibility is a virtue that can be observed in oneself or in others. People say that A person is responsible when, aware of their actions, they know that these are the direct or indirect cause of an event, for which they are plausible to be imputable, and they will even have to answer for those acts, if necessary.
It is with the first constitutions written in the world (Western, we should clarify) that the concepts of freedom, right and responsibility appear. We would say that one is unthinkable without the presence of the other, in such a sense that without all three in full force it would be impossible to think of a system of government such as democracy. The Declaration of Duties and Rights promulgated in 1789 during the French Revolution, and the United States Constitution of 1787 are the main constitutions, or the most relevant antecedents regarding the current conception of these three notions.
But this is not the only meaning that we can give to this term, since it also includes other senses, such as that of position, commitment or obligation to something, for example, a teacher has the responsibility of bringing to fruition the education of the students in her charge. It is also applied as a synonym for cause and it can be used to explain, for example, what was the cause of a certain accident: the absence of a seat belt on the driver and his passenger was responsible for both being thrown from the vehicle. It can also be found applied to define the imputability of a debt or obligation, which would be the case of an instrument or tool that we own and that caused harm to another person, then, because we are the owners of it, we will be fully responsible for the damage that it has produced.
The concept of responsibility goes hand in hand with the concept of freedom, since without it there would be no possibility of choosing to take charge, responsible for a situation or person and without a doubt, it is your complement and best companion.
On the other hand, we all have rights "to such a thing", which gives us the freedom to exercise it or not, for example, if we have the right to publish our ideas in the press without prior censorship, this does not mean that we are obliged to do so. , if not we can do it or not. In this case, as in others, our actions are not vetoed by censorship or restrictions, but we respond precisely to what are called "subsequent responsibilities", that is, the responsibilities that may arise from the abusive exercise of that right, which directly affects another subject (also subject of rights) to whom it causes damage (whether material or moral).
Meanwhile, the concept of responsibility has an important significance in the field of law and is regularly referred to as legal responsibility.
It is said that someone has legal responsibility for or over something when it transgresses a legal rule. Unfailingly, and coupled with this break and lack of observance of the pre-established rule, the sanction will appear, which is the reaction of society, which will claim this deviation before the relevant authority, which in this case will be the judicial one, the latter being the one that it will be necessary to punish the individual who ignored that rule.
In this sense, there are three types of responsibilities: civil, criminal and administrative. In most cases, in the countries, there are Codes that regulate both civil and criminal law, and both aim at different objectives: while in civil liability the main compensation is economic, in the case of criminal liability what is sought is a punishment, penalty or punishment of the accused. On the other hand, in the allegations, while in civil matters the judge decides his sentence through what each party exposes (what is called “formal truth”), in criminal matters the judge is obliged and it is his task to search for the real truth of what really happened.
