Rights, Claimants, and Beneficiaries
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1969
ISSN
2152-1123
Publisher
University of Illinois Press
Language
en-US
Abstract
To have a right, Bentham held, is to be the beneficiary of another's duty or obligation. This theory, one of the more attractive and plausible suggestions about the nature of rights, appears supported by innumerable cases. It is reflected in the notion common to laymen, lawyers, and philosophers that someone with a right is on the advantageous side of a legal or moral relation. It promises to explain why rights are such valuable and important commodities. And it seems bolstered by a variety of facts, for example that compensation or reparation is often required, and might always be required, when one's rights are violated or infringed.
Recommended Citation
David B. Lyons,
Rights, Claimants, and Beneficiaries
,
in
6
American Philosophical Quarterly
173
(1969).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/2432
