Rights Terminology

Contact: Dr. Jan Garrett

Revised March 5, 2007

A right (noun) - a justified claim to something or to non-interference in a certain respect

Legal right - a right justified by a system of laws (possibly including a written constitution)

Moral (natural, human) right - a right that a person has as a human being in the appropriate sense. May be used as a basis for criticizing, defending, or advocating laws and legal rights.

Right(s)-bearer (= -holder) - the person or group or institution that has a right (or rights).

Object of a right - whatever a right entitles one to, e.g., freedom of speech, health care.

Interests - things without which we cannot live or live well.

Some philosophers say that the objects of human rights are things in which we have a vital interest. (Not all interests would be considered vital.)

Addressee of a right - the person or group or institution that has a duty because some other person or group or institution has a right

Apparent (prima facie) right - a right that people seem to have, given generally accepted statements regarding rights. People's apparent rights may seem to conflict.

Genuine (or actual) right - the rights people actually have and which can and should be recognized after the boundaries between one person's right and another's are determined.

System (rights as a) - the fact that rights form a consistent legal or moral system, according to which conflicts between genuine rights are impossible.

Forfeiture - the loss of one or more rights arising from a person's violation of the rights of others. (Those who violate others' legal rights may lose their liberty by being imprisoned.)

Negative (non-interference, liberty) right - the right of a person (or group) not to be interfered with in some way; e.g., the right to life as the right not to be murdered.

Positive right - a right of a person (or a group) to receive from others (including society) something he (or it) needs or has a reasonable interest in. See "welfare rights" and "capability rights" below.

Welfare right - a right of a person to receive something he or she needs (e.g., food, water, health care)

Capability right - a right of persons to receive goods or services that will increase the range of what they can do or be (e.g., skills, knowledge, mobility, health).

(For more on capabilities and rights, see Martha Nussbaum on Capabilities and Human Rights.)