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Rights are a far more complex subject than we usually think. Most people would be surprised at how much that their folk models of rights leave out. Libertarians rely on such simple models because they can lead to the right ideological conclusions. At least four fields consider rights: philosophy, law, economics, and anthropology. A good model would be compatible with all four fields. == Natural Rights == Let's get [[Natural Rights]] out of the way first. Natural rights are exactly as knowable as invisible pink unicorns: anybody can fantasize them any way they want. During the Enlightenment, when liberalism was invented, liberal natural rights were a propaganda tool used to undermine the equally fictitious natural rights of kings. But even among liberals there was no agreement about whether slaveholding was a natural right or not, because natural rights are really just words. Bentham famously dismissed the idea of natural rights as "nonsense on stilts". Unfortunately, most libertarians (including Nozick) start with this philosophical abomination rather than more factual alternatives. For more on natural rights, see: * [[Natural Rights]] == Hohfeld's Classification Of Rights == Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld created the standard legal classification of right, duty, privilege (meaning liberty), no-right, power, liability, immunity and disability in a 1913 article that he expanded into a book. Libertarians (and lay people in general) are usually ignorant of these important definitions. For the sake of simplicity, we are only going to consider right (also known as claim right) and duty. A right can be expressed as "R has a right against D to T". For example, Anne has a right against everybody to use her car. '''For every right, there is a correlative duty.''' A duty can be expressed as "D has a duty to R to T". For example, everybody has a duty to Anne to let her use her car. You cannot have a right without creating a duty. For more on Hohfeld's classification see: * [[Hohfeld’s typology of rights]] == Moral Rights And Enforced Rights == A moral right is a rights claim with its correlative claim of duty. An enforced right is a rights claim whose correlative duty is enforced by threat and/or coercion. Moral rights can coexist in contradictory multitudes because they are only words and not enforced. There is no actual protection with moral rights, and natural rights are an example. Enforced rights, on the other hand, can conflict. That's why law is usually dominant and conflicting rights claims are brought to court to decide a winner. An enforced right can be expressed as "R has a right against D to T and R tells E to enforce D's duty to R. For example, Anne has a right against everybody to use her car and Anne tells the police to enforce everybody's duty to let her use her car. From here on, I am only going to talk about enforced rights and duties. == A Positive Model Of Rights == A good model of rights should be consistent with observations from law, economics, and anthropology. If it is based on observation, we can call it a positive model, like models in the sciences.(But not necessarily philosophy.) [[Image:Rights2.jpg|400px]] An enforced right can be modeled as a social and economic relationship between three groups about a thing. The three groups and thing (blue circles) are: * The '''RightHolder''', which may be one or more people who get to use the Thing. * The '''DutyBearers''', who have a duty to respect the right. * The '''Enforcer''', ranging from an individual to a government, who enforces the right. * The '''Thing''', which may be abstract like a copyright or concrete like land. Four claims (dotted, gray arrows) are made: * The RightHolder makes a '''Rights Claim''' to the DutyBearer. * The RightHolder makes a '''Duty Claim''' to the DutyBearer. * The RightHolder makes an '''Enforcement Claim''' to the Enforcer. * The Enforcer makes a '''Threat Claim''' to the DutyBearer. The economic values (black for profits, red for losses): * The RightHolder gets '''Benefits''' from the Thing. * The Enforcer gets '''Fees''' from the RightHolder, DutyBearers and/or the Thing itself. * The DutyBearers lose value from the '''Opportunity Costs''' of not using the Thing<br>or from '''Penalties''' from the Enforcer. == Compound Rights == == Positive And Negative Rights? == == Absolute Rights? == == Spheres Of Rights? ==
A Positive Model Of Rights
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