Moral rights (short note)

Legal rights and moral rights

Legal rights are claims recognised and enforced by the state, and they come from the constitution and from ordinary laws alike: NCERT calls the rights of equal citizenship legal rights, secured by the constitution and laws. The highest of them are constitutional. A Bill of Rights is part of many constitutions, in India the Fundamental Rights, and because the constitution is the highest law this recognition gives those rights a primary importance, which other laws are expected to respect. Ordinary legislation creates legal rights too: in India the right to information was granted through a new law. Some theorists define rights as claims recognised by the state. But legal endorsement, though it gives a special status, is not the basis on which rights are claimed: rights have been expanded and reinterpreted to include previously excluded groups.

Moral rights rest on conscience and ethical principle, not on enactment. Kant's view is the example NCERT gives: every person has intrinsic dignity and must be treated as an end, not as a means; this moral conception of rights has been a rallying point for those struggling against social hierarchies. NCERT describes them as claims that "appeal to our moral self", and their success depends on support from governments and the law.

Relation. Moral rights supply the reason for demanding legal recognition (the history of rights is the history of moral claims turned into law by struggle) and legal rights supply enforcement. A legal right may be morally objectionable (laws that denied equal rights to some groups), and a moral right may be unenforceable until it is legislated. The legal right is enforceable by a court; the moral right is enforced by public opinion and conscience.