Imagining Human Rights

Rüdiger Bittner

On Invoking Human Rights When There Aren’t Any

Human rights are supposed to be rights that human beings hold, not thanks to a particular legal transaction, like a declaration, a grant or a contract, but just thanks to their being human.

Doubts

Doubts about the existence of such rights are aroused by the fact that the idea of them has a questionable pedigree. Here is a sketch. In the late 18th century human rights, then called the rights of man, took the place of natural rights. This shift was largely one in terminology, not in substance, for natural rights were called natural precisely because people were similarly taken to hold these independently of any legal transaction. Also, natural rights were always understood to be held ...