Legal Rights

Understanding the nature and role of rights is a central This puzzle about rights invites a reconsideration of the nature and methods of legal doctrine and of jurisprudence itself. Legal Rights argues that the theory of law and legal concepts is a project of moral and political philosophy, the best account of which is to be found in the social contract tradition. It outlines an argument according to which legal rights can be justified before equal citizens under the constraints of public reason. The place of rights in law is explained by the unique position of law as an essential component of the civil condition and a necessary condition for freedom. legal rights relate to their moral counterparts, this book criticises existing analytic models and presents a new theory based on the idea of public reason. In doing so, the book argues for a shift in the methodology of legal theory.