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Concept | Definition | Elaborations | Examples |
Right | An essential capacity of action that others are obliged to recognize and respect. | Framework to justify right claims: (a) Essential to autonomy; (b) Vulnerable to a standard threat; (c) Feasible in that recognizing and respecting right claims does not deprive the duty-holder of something essential. | Some Key Rights in Business: Free and Informed Consent, Due Process, Privacy, Free Speech, Property, and Freedom of Conscience |
Duty | A principle that obliges us to recognize and respect the autonomy of others (and of ourselves). | Duty Levels: (a) Not to deprive; (b) Prevent deprivation; (c) Aid the deprived | These two Kantian Principles encapsulate respect for Autonomy: (1) Categorical Imperative : Act only on that maxim that can be made into a universal law; (2) Formula of the End : Treat others always as ends and never merely as means. |
Correlativity of rights and duties | The definition of right includes the concept of obilgation or duty. The definition of duty is built around recognizing and respecting rights. | Because rights and duties are defined in terms of one another they are correlative; for every right there is a series of correlative duties. | This is a controversial thesis. Nevertheless, the correlativity thesis harbors the truth that rights neither exist nor function in a vacuum. To characterize rights as claims is to imply that they are claims over someone to do something. Especially important is the notion that rights identify capacities of action that are vulnerable to standard threats. |
Rights Justification Framework | To establish a rights claim as legitimate, one must prove that the claim is... | (1) Essential to autonomy; (2) Vulnerable to a "standard threat"; (3) Feasible in that it imposes on the duty-holders an obligation whose execution does not deprive them of something essential. | In relating the right claim to autonomy, remember to connect it to one of the four senses of autonomy discussed below: (1) Self-Choice; (2) Self-Legislation; (3) Authenticity; (4) Self-Decision. |
Identifying Correlative Duties | Correlative duties form levels and often proceed from basic individual duties to social or collective duties | (a) Duty not to deprive an individual of a right; (b)Duty to protect others from being deprived of their rights; (c) Duty to aid those who have been deprived of their rights. | The first two correlative duties are generally carried out by individuals : (a) For example, one cannot deprive others of their rights to informed consent by withholding information; (b) If someone else is withholding information and one can prevent deprivation by revealing this information, then one has a duty to do so; (c) But often societies collectively aid those who have been deprived of their rights by creating legal procedures that those suffering rights deprivations can appeal to. |
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