Theories of Rights

POLI70722 Theories of Rights 15 Semester 2 Postgraduate Taught Level 7 Stephen Hood Unit coordinator Politics 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Masters/Integrated Masters P4 ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 7.5 1. The Hohfeldian Framework     • Understanding the conceptual elements that make up the 'rights' of everyday discourse.  2. Objective Rights and Conventional Rights      • The difference between legal rights, conventional moral rights, and objective moral rights      • Are there any objective moral rights?  3. Rights as Side-Constraints vs. Goal-Based Rights      • Should we still respect a person's rights if violating them will minimise overall rights violations?      • Can consequentialists provide a coherent justification of the rights of citizens?  4. Punishment and the Enforcement of Rights      • Do rights-violators automatically forfeit their own rights against harmful interference?      • What gives the state the right to punish its citizens?  5. Group, Minority, and Multicultural Rights      • Can (and should) groups possess rights?      • Do multicultural rights protect minorities, or are they instead a threat to freedom and equality?  6. Democracy and Rights      • Is there a tension between basic rights and democratic rule?      • Should some rights be constitutionally protected even if they conflict with the 'will of the people'?  7. Justifying Human Rights      • Does cross-cultural disagreement undermine any attempt to objectively justify human rights?      • Can we justify human rights by appealing to human needs?  8. Socio-Economic Human Rights      • Who (or what) bears the duties that correlate with human rights?      • Must human rights be immediately satisfied or are they merely aspirations for a better future?  9. A Human Right to Immigrate?      • What kinds of considerations must be taken into account in order to establish a human right?      • Do these considerations support a human right to migrate into and settle in one's state of choice?  10. Essay Workshop and Course Review  The aim of this course is to help students address some fundamental questions about rights by studying a wide range of contemporary writings in moral philosophy, political theory and jurisprudence. Questions to be considered include: What are rights? What are human rights? Who or what can possess rights? What’s the difference between moral rights and legal rights? What rights would people have in a socially just state? Does the state have the right to punish its citizens? Do human beings have rights of self-ownership? Is there are human right to be free from poverty? Is there a human right to immigrate and settle anywhere in the world? How do we determine whose duty is it to see that human rights of various kinds are fulfilled? Should rights be constitutionally protected? Do cultural minorities have group rights to non-interference or would this undermine the rights of individuals to be protected from oppression? Students will be expected to develop a good understanding of a selection of recent articles on rights theory and thus to equip themselves to take an informed and critical position on current controversies about rights. In so doing, they will acquire experience in the analysis, construction and presentation of theoretical arguments. The course will be taught in ten 2 hour sessions  0 Other 100% 1000 word essay (30%) 2,000 word essay (70%) Y <ul> <li> Peter Jones, Rights (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 1994) purchase of this text is required</li></ul><ul> <li> Jeremy Waldron, Theories of Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984).</li></ul> Seminars 20 0 130