Duty

Duty refers to a moral or legal obligation to perform or refrain from actions. It can arise from social roles (parent, citizen), professional codes (doctor, lawyer), contracts, or statutory law. In ethics, duty is central to deontological theories that judge actions by adherence to rules rather than outcomes. For example, Kant argued that one should act from maxims that could be willed as universal law. Duties may conflict, creating ethical dilemmas when more than one obligation applies.

In law, a duty denotes an obligation recognized by the legal system. A common example is the duty of care, the obligation to avoid reasonably foreseeable harm; breach can lead to liability. Duties can be explicit in statutes or implied by relationships and professional norms. In professional settings, duties include fiduciary duties of loyalty and care, and duties to clients, patients, or the public.

Duties appear in everyday life and civic life as well: parental duties, duties to support dependents, jury duty, or military service. The concept is distinct from, but related to, obligation or responsibility, and its prominence varies across cultures and legal systems. In commerce, “duty” also means a tax on imports or exports, or is used in “duty-free” to denote exemption from such taxes.