1) What are “rights” and why do they grow?
| Corner-stone | Key idea quotes / example |
|---|---|
| Co-relativity | Every right presupposes a matching duty; without obligation the claim is empty. “Rights and duties are two sides of the same coin.” |
| Social recognition | Rights do not float in a vacuum; they exist only through community acknowledgement. Critics of “abstract” rights press this point. |
| Modernity | Pre-modern orders relied on concession or charity; modern revolutions (1789 France – “rights of man”) turned them into enforceable entitlements. — |
| Expansion | New rights keep appearing — work, strike, privacy, environmental integrity. Rights discourse is dynamic, not fixed. |
2) Hohfeld’s Analytic Grid / Incidence (1913)
| Incidence | Opposite/Correlative | Essence |
|---|---|---|
| Claim | Duty | You may demand X of B. |
| Privilege (liberty) | No-right | You are free to do X. |
| Power | Liability | You can alter legal relations. |
| Immunity | Disability | You are shielded from A’s power. |
3) Competing Theories of Rights
| Theory | Core postulate | Chief advocates | Main criticisms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural-rights | Rights are pre-social, self-evident truths (life, liberty, property). | Locke, Jefferson (1776), French Declaration (1791), Herbert Spencer | Vague list, clashes (liberty vs equality), ignores social origin, fuels extreme individualism. |
| Legal / Positivist | Rights are creations of law; state is the fountainhead. | Bentham (“nonsense upon stilts”), shade of Hobbes | Makes state omnipotent, forgets moral basis; law often codifies prior custom. |
| Historical / Conservative | Rights crystallise from long-standing custom. | Edmund Burke, Ritchie | Custom can sanctify slavery; stifles reform. |
| Social-welfare / Utilitarian | A right is any rule that maximises social expediency/happiness. | Bentham (in utility mode), J.S. Mill (qualified) | Greatest-number rule sacrifices minorities; happiness unquantifiable; may let ends justify means. |
| Marxist view (critique) | “Bourgeois” masks of atomistic society; genuine human emancipation lies beyond rights-talk. | Marx | Overlooks anti-statist protection value of rights. |
4) Moving past the binaries — Laski’s Social-Liberal Synthesis
| Laski’s thesis | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Rights as social conditions of self-realisation | Neither atomistic nor state-gifted; rooted in moral realm and collective welfare. |
| Capitalism fails rights test | Built on privilege, not equal rights; socialism offers fuller realisation. |
| Rights dynamic, not static | “Civilisation is not static”; rights evolve with social needs. |
| State recognises, does not create, rights | Echoes Spencer: law defines & protects pre-legal moral claims. |
| Threat map | Liberty endangered by fascism and unbridled capitalism; vigilance & reform perpetual. |
5) Dworkin’s Rights-as-Trumps
| Pillar | Essence | Answer cue |
|---|---|---|
| Moral shield | Some rights place absolute limits on state action; they override “overall benefit” calculations. | Taking Rights Seriously (1977) |
| Nonnegotiable | Inviolable, non-weighable, unconditional—protect dignity & autonomy. | Quote: “Rights trump collective goals.” |
| Qualified exceptions | Gov’t may curb a right only if: (1) the right isn’t genuinely at stake, (2) social cost is disproportionate, or (3) collision with dignity/other rights. | Frame any limit using Dworkin’s 3-test rubric. |
6) Generations of Human Rights — From Vasak to Sohn
| Generation | Focus & examples | Key advocates / texts |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Civil-political (life, speech, fair trial) – “negative” duties. | Roots: Magna Carta → Bill of Rights → ICCPR |
| 2nd | Socio-economic-cultural (work, health, social security) – positive state action. | Post-WW II constitutions; ICESCR |
| 3rd | Solidarity/collective (self-determination, environment, development). | Decolonisation era; North–South dialogues. |
| 4th? | Tech-future or vulnerability rights: genome, AI, digital access or special safeguards for tribals, women, disabled. | Louis B. Sohn; alternative stream links to marginalised groups. |
Debate & critiques
• Karel Vasak coined the 3-tier lexicon (1979).
• Steven Jensen & Patrick Macklem: neat “generations” mask messy historical overlaps.
• Global governance & biotech push the frame beyond the state → calls for a fourth tier.
7) Communitarian & Multicultural Challenges to Liberal Rights
| Communitarian charge | Scholar | Key claim |
|---|---|---|
| Liberalism’s “unencumbered self” myth | Michael Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice | Identity is forged in shared ends; politics should centre on common good, not atomistic rights. |
| Contextual justice & complex equality | Michael Walzer, Spheres of Justice | Distribution rules differ across social spheres; justice follows shared meanings. |
| Group-differentiated rights | Bhikhu Parekh | Minorities seek collective rights (language, land, veto) to protect culture; liberal law must adapt. |
Multicultural fault-lines
• Universal citizenship vs cultural recognition → “difference-blind” equality is too thin.
• Group rights vs individual rights → autonomy, language or land claims may clash with liberal neutrality.
• Gender warning: cultural defenses can entrench patriarchal practices; liberal core values must still police oppression.
8) Human Rights
Post-1945 “Human Rights Turn”
| importance | Key Scholars / voices |
|---|---|
| Holocaust & Hiroshima | Exposed the dark side of absolute, Austinian sovereignty → moral space for international oversight of states. Early UN drafters; Louis Henkin later codifies the “concern of mankind”. |
| International Bill of Rights | UDHR 1948 + ICCPR & ICESCR 1966 form a single normative package—civil-political AND socio-economic guarantees. Eleanor Roosevelt (UDHR chair); John Locke’s life-liberty triad and Immanuel Kant’s human dignity supply philosophical spine. |
9) Globalisation & Human-Rights Four-Lens Audit
| Generation touched | Globalisation boosts … | Globalisation erodes … | Scholars / cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st (Civil-political) | Quicker information flows; NGO watchdogs (Amnesty, HRW). | Mass surveillance, corporate capture. | Kofi Annan on sovereignty-plus-responsibility. |
| 2nd (Socio-economic) | FDI can enlarge jobs, health spend. | IMF SAPs slash welfare; widening wealth gap. | Joseph Stiglitz, Globalisation and Its Discontents. |
| 3rd (Solidarity / development) | Trans-border green activism, climate treaties. | Resource rush → ecological harm & local displacement. | — |
| 4th (Vulnerable groups / tech) | Digital inclusion, telemedicine. | Data colonialism, AI bias. | Louis B. Sohn on genome rights. |
Optimists see market-led rights diffusion; pessimists call it “de-development”. Reality = dual impact.
10) Western Universalism vs Cultural Relativism
| Claim | Illustration | Counter |
|---|---|---|
| Cultural Relativists: rights are Western individualism masquerading as universal; “Asian values” (Lee Kuan Yew, Mahathir). | Selective West-led critiques (e.g., Kashmir vs silence on allies). | UNESCO Art 4 & Vienna 1993 reject culture as excuse for abuse. |
| Universalists: rights precede culture; indivisible minimum. | Responsibility to Protect (ICISS 2001). | Risk of imperial overreach → Makau Mutua’s “saviour-victim-savage” caution. |
| Relative Universalism — Rights are global in principle but domestically “vernacularised”. | Donnelly; Amartya Sen’s dialogic approach. | — |
11) Indian Context — Post-colonial Asymmetries
Features
-
Modern coercive state vs pre-modern social hierarchies (caste, tribe).
-
Strong police–paramilitary, weaker conflict-resolution institutions.
-
Narrow social base for rights consciousness.
Challenges
• Promotion gap, weak implementing agencies.
• Culture-specific tensions (particularism).
• Surveillance rise (“Orwellian state”).
• Forced displacement, xenophobia.
Amartya Sen: freedom is instrumental, constitutive & constructive to development—eroded when HR slide.
Scholars Index
Kofi Annan · Jeremy Bentham · Franz Boas · Edmund Burke · Jack Donnelly · Ronald Dworkin · Louis Henkin · Thomas Hobbes · Wesley Hohfeld · Thomas Jefferson · Steven Jensen · Immanuel Kant · Harold Laski · Lee Kuan Yew · John Locke · Patrick Macklem · Mahathir Mohamad · Karl Marx · John Stuart Mill · Makau Mutua · Martha Nussbaum · Bhikhu Parekh · David G. Ritchie · Eleanor Roosevelt · Michael Sandel · Amartya Sen · Louis B. Sohn · Herbert Spencer · Joseph Stiglitz · Karel Vasak · Michael Walzer