Human Rights -

incorporates not only liberties associated with being a member of a free political society but also entitlement to a fair distribution of what society has to offer. There are divergent views of the role of the state and the law in the distribution of social goods.

Natural Rights - derived from Natural law theory are viewed as enduring and universal; that is, subject to minimal or no limitation. Rights are viewed as absolute or NONRESTRICTABLE RIGHT.

Positive Rights - are derived from Positive law usually in the form of statutes and are shaped by political authority. These rights are shaped by political social, economic, and political changes within society. Positive rights are viewed as restrictable rights.

The Development of Human Rights Theory

Human rights owes a great deal to early Greek Philosophers

Plato - Human dignity is one such universal and eternal value that stands above the laws of any state.

Aristotle - considered different social classes and equals should be treated equally only between the groups that are “similarly situated.

St. Thomas Aquinas - believed that basic human needs under natural law, for example, self-preservation and procreation, require certain human rights.

Positive law theorists began attacking Natural law views of human rights.

Thomas Hobbes - felt there could be no rights without strong, coercive human laws to enforce them. Rights could be given and take away by the state.

Bentham and Austin - strongly embraced the philosophy of utilitarianism - the idea that the law should favour the welfare of the greatest number in society over the rights of any individual.

John Locke - brings the core of positive law theory to modern Human rights. The positive rights of the state are embedded in a constitution, the foundation for legal order was based on natural law. Human rights includes Natural law rights of self-preservation, which can develop into a right to resist civil law or to revolt.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The social contract theory expressed the idea that all persons within a state were deemed to have entered voluntarily into a contract with one another to form a civilized society.

IMMANUMAL KANTINDIVIDUALS SHOULD LIVE IN A SOCIETY WITH AN AIR TO ALLOWING OTHERS THEIR RIGHT TO INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM. TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE TREATED. JOHN MILLS INDIVIDUALS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO PURSUE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, THOUGHT, AND UNIFICATION - THESE CONCEPTS OUTLINE THE LIBERALIST POINT OF VIEW. THESE FREEDOMS WERE NOT CONSIDERED TO BE ABSOLUTE IF THERE WAS AN INFRINGEMENT ON THE FREEDOMS OF OTHERS.

Mill’s theories form the foundation of today’s charter rights.

KARL MARX

FREEDOM WAS ONLY AVAILABLE THROUGH GOVERNMENT. EQUALITY OVERODE LIBERTY.

JOHN RAWLS

The founding father of today’s affirmative action programs.

He states that justice has a distributive nature: wealth, liberty, opportunity should be available to all even if it means providing seemingly unequal opportunity to some.

CRITICAL LEGAL STUDIES (CLS)It is impossible for individuals to seek specific rights when individuals are inherently attempting to enhance their power and self-interest.

CLS adherents believe that the rights consciousness promoted by liberals encourages individualsim and self-centredness in society at the expense of a true community.

The true fulfilment of human liberty will occur only as the result of political debate producing choices among “competing practical schemes” to achieve the proper mix of individual liberty and the constraints required by group life.

TERMS OF (ENDEARMENT)

CIVIL LIBERTIES - ACTIONS OR RIGHTS THAT AN INDIVIDUAL MAY EXERCISE WITHOUT GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT

CIVIL RIGHTS - MAINTAINING SOCIAL ORDER VIA PRIVATE LAW (TORT, CONTRACT, PROPERTY)