Rights, control, and protection Notes for April 1

Main points

There are a number of rights for which claiming seems beside the point. We talked about how Feinberg tries to fit these rights into his theory of the nature and value of rights.

We also talked about theories of rights more generally. I took the position that the point of some rights is to give people control while other rights are more for the purpose of protection. If so, neither the benefit nor the choice theory can give a complete, satisfying account of all rights.

This page was written by Michael Green for Philosophy of Law, Philosophy 34, Spring 2009. ΒΆ It was posted April 1, 2009.
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