The Nature of Rights

• According to the Oxford Dictionary, a right is a “justifiable claim on legal or moral grounds to have or obtain something, or to act in a certain way.”

• A right may be a legal right, enforceable through a court of law (e.g., right of way) and is a concern of jurisprudence.

• A right may also be a moral right, which a court will not enforce (e.g., parent’s right to obedience, old man’s right to respect).

• Rights can concern material objects (property), the services of others (employment), or the use of something (right-of-way).

• Ethics asks: what are the moral grounds justifying the claim to do or enjoy these rights?

• Common answer: a right is justified if its assertion benefits the common good.

• Rights imply society; a solitary individual (e.g., Robinson Crusoe) has no rights on a desert island; use of resources there would be a matter of might, not right.

• Might is not right; the distinction is important.

• If the general good is the basis of rights, a right should be asserted in a way that maximizes the common good.

• This principle explains why some rights are enforceable by law (e.g., property) and others are not (e.g., respect).

• Forcing respect (e.g., a teacher using coercion) does not serve the general good.

• Having a right does not mean one must assert it in every case; sometimes it is a duty, sometimes not.

• Example of duty: using a right-of-way denied by a greedy landlord to benefit the community.

• Example of waiving a right: not claiming a small property to avoid community ill-will or preserving family equality.

• The ability to know when to assert or waive a right is a rare and finest quality in a good person.

• Extremes: self-assertiveness demanding everything vs. lazy indecision refusing obvious duties.

• Men of highest character know intuitively whether to demand a right; calculation would require evaluating all intrinsic goods and comparing results of asserting vs. waiving the right.