Rights as Defences and Liberties

Abstract

The concept of right, we already hinted, carries elements which allow for two quite distinct senses: one which interlocks with claims both to and against, and a second sense which also affirms one’s claim or right to act in a certain way, yet does so without asserting a duty on the other side or claim against. Such is a right of self-defence, or a right to criticise, or to divorce or separate, or to terminate a contract, or to give notice to a tenant, or the right to compete in trade, or the right to picket.¹ We shall call these defensive rights, sometimes called liberties or liberty-rights, to distinguish them from rights with correlative duties or fully assertive rights.