A Debate Over Rights

Abstract

This book engages in essay form in a lively debate over the fundamental characteristics of legal rights. Each chapter considers whether rights essentially protect individuals' interests — as is contended by the Interest Theory of rights — or whether they instead essentially enable individuals to make choices, as the Will Theory of rights maintains. The book addresses many questions, such as the following: What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a legal right? What is the connection between the existence and the enforcement of a legal right (i.e., between legal rights and legal remedies)? Does the identification of legal rights inevitably involve ethical judgments? To what extent can rights be in conflict? The answers to these and related questions can illuminatingly clarify, though not finally resolve, some of the present-day controversies over abortion, euthanasia, and animal rights.

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