[lit-ideas] Re: Right of Return
- From: "Peter D. Junger" <junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2006 17:50:19 -0500
"Phil Enns" writes:
: Omar is confused on several points so I will do my best to help him:
:
: "If you want to make a government establish a law that grants a right,
: you need to argue that such a right exists."
:
: A legal right exists when a government establishes the relevant law.
: Before that, there is no right, just moral arguments.
"Rights language" can be quite confusing, but one thing is clear:
rights can be legal---a grant of a right from a government---but
they can also be moral. In general, human rights---i.e., civil
rights---are moral rights that, to a large extent because of treaties,
are recognized as being also legal rights, binding on governments.
Such legal right are not usually created by governments, they are
created by international law, although the may also be embodied
in the statutes or the constitutions of individual states.
: "I am not sure what counts as a natural right, as opposed to one
: established by law."
:
: You don't need to. As you noted yourself, property rights are not
: natural.
Try to explain that to a dog when you are trying to take a bone
away from him. Most political conservatives who have bothered to
think about the matter would insist that property rights are the
most natural of rights. If, on the other hand, you are claiming
that the only natural rights are those that exist in a Hobbesian
state of nature, then you are denying that there are any natural
rights..
--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH
EMAIL: junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx URL: http://samsara.law.cwru.edu
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