Overview

Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement. They are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people.

Core Idea

The core idea is that individuals have a “protective sphere” around them that others (including the government) cannot cross. Rights are “trumps” (Dworkin) that override utility.

Formal Definition

  • Negative Rights: The right to be left alone (e.g., Free Speech, Freedom of Religion). The duty is on others to not interfere.
  • Positive Rights: The right to be provided with something (e.g., Right to Healthcare, Education). The duty is on others (usually the state) to provide.

Intuition

  • The Riot: A mob wants to kill an innocent man to prevent a riot that would kill ten people. A utilitarian might say “kill him.” A rights theorist says “No, he has a right to life. You cannot violate it, even for the greater good.”

Examples

  • Natural Rights: Rights you have just by being human (Locke: Life, Liberty, Property).
  • Legal Rights: Rights given by law (e.g., the right to drive).
  • Human Rights: The modern international consensus (UN Declaration).

Common Misconceptions

  • Misconception: Rights are absolute.
    • Correction: Most rights have limits (e.g., you can’t yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater). Rights can conflict.
  • Misconception: Only humans have rights.
    • Correction: (See Animal Rights). Corporations also have legal rights.
  • Duties: Rights and duties are correlative. If I have a right to life, you have a duty not to kill me.
  • Libertarianism: A political philosophy emphasizing negative rights.
  • Social Democracy: Emphasizes positive rights.

Applications

  • Constitution: The Bill of Rights.
  • International Law: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

Criticism and Limitations

  • Rights Inflation: If everything becomes a “right” (right to internet, right to vacation), the concept loses its power.
  • Nonsense on Stilts: Jeremy Bentham called natural rights “nonsense on stilts” because he believed only legal rights existed.

Further Reading

  • Taking Rights Seriously by Ronald Dworkin
  • Rights by Hohfeld (Analysis of legal concepts)
  • The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine