Rights, and legal rights

Introduction

In everyday life we constantly speak of rights: the right to vote, to form parties, to information, to clean air. The question asks what we mean by rights and what legal rights in particular are.

Meaning and importance of rights

A right is an entitlement or a justified claim: what we may rightly claim as citizens, as individuals and simply as human beings, something that the rest of society must recognise as legitimate. Not everything that I want is a right; rights are those claims that I and others regard as necessary for a life of respect and dignity. They are claimed on two grounds, that they are conditions of dignity and self-respect (the right to livelihood, freedom of expression), and that they are necessary for well-being and the development of talents (the right to education). A claim that is injurious to others or to oneself, such as smoking or taking banned drugs, cannot be claimed as a right. Rights are claimed chiefly against the state: each right says what the state must do and what it must refrain from doing, so that rights place limits on the state's authority and make rulers accountable, for the state exists for the sake of the individual and not the reverse.

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.

Kinds of rights

1. Political rights give citizens equality before law and the right to take part in the political process: to vote and elect representatives, contest elections, form or join parties. They are supplemented by civil liberties: a free and fair trial, free expression, protest and dissent. Together they are the basis of democratic government.
2. Economic and social rights secure the conditions for exercising political rights: food, shelter, clothing, health, a basic education and reasonable conditions of work. A person struggling on the pavement to meet basic needs gets little from the right to vote, so democracies increasingly provide housing, medical facilities, minimum wages and employment guarantees (in India, the rural employment guarantee scheme is NCERT's example).
3. Cultural rights include the right to primary education in one's mother tongue and to set up institutions teaching one's language and culture.

Some rights, to life, liberty, equal treatment and political participation, are seen as basic and must have priority; others are justified claims that are being recognised as societies develop. The list has grown as new threats appear: rights to clean air and water, sustainable development, and the rights of children.

Conclusion

Rights are justified claims to what is necessary for a life of dignity. Legal rights are those claims that the state recognises and enforces through its constitution and its ordinary laws: in India they include the Fundamental Rights, which limit the state's own power, and rights created by ordinary legislation, such as the right to information.