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Law Ethics & Professional Responsibility

A Debate Over Rights

Philosophical Enquiries

by (author) Matthew Kramer, Nigel Simmonds & Hillel Steiner

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Initial publish date
Oct 1999
Category
Ethics & Professional Responsibility
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780198298991
    Publish Date
    Oct 1999
    List Price
    $66.50

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

The authors of this volume engage in essay form in a lively debate over the fundamental characteristics of legal and moral rights. Each author considers whether rights essentially protect individuals' interests or whether they instead essentially enable individuals to make choices. The bookaddresses many questions including: What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a right? What is the connection between the existence and the enforcement of a right (i.e., between rights and remedies)? Does the identification of rights inevitably involve value judgements? 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. Anyone interested in the basic nature of rights and other entitlementswill profit from reading this book.

About the authors

Contributor Notes

Matthew Kramer is a University Lecturer in Jurisprudence, Cambridge University, and Fellow and Director of Studies in Law, Churchill College, Cambridge. Nigel Simmonds is a Reader in Jurisprudence, Cambridge University, and Fellow and Director of Studies in Law, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Hillel Steiner is Professor of Political Philosophy, University of Manchester.

Editorial Reviews

'the authors expound their positions with admirable vigor and clarity. This work will certainly be of significant interest to anyone concerned with the Hohfeldian jural framework, the "Interest" and "Will" theories of Rights, on the rival analytic and evaluative approaches to the philosophicalfoundations of rights theory. It is, then, a more than welcome addition to our ongoing "debate over rights"'Jack Wade Nowlin, Dept. of Politics, Princeton University