Difference between revisions of "What Are Rights?"
From Critiques Of Libertarianism
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== Moral Rights And Enforced 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. | + | 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 "A has a right against B to C and A tells E to enforce B's duty to A. 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. | From here on, I am only going to talk about enforced rights and duties. | ||
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== A Positive Model Of Rights == | == A Positive Model Of Rights == | ||
[[Image:rights.jpg|400px]] | [[Image:rights.jpg|400px]] | ||
| + | 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.) | ||
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| + | An enforced right can be modeled as a social and economic relationship between three groups about a thing. | ||
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| + | 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. | ||
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== Compound Rights == | == Compound Rights == | ||
== Positive And Negative Rights? == | == Positive And Negative Rights? == | ||
== Absolute Rights? == | == Absolute Rights? == | ||
== Spheres Of Rights? == | == Spheres Of Rights? == | ||
