Theory of Rights

&
Theory of Justice
By – Jahnavi Aggarwal
M.Com -2 ( sem -4)
Roll no. 5803
 The first person credited with developing a comprehensive theory
of rights was British philosopher John Locke (1632-1704).
Locke wrote that people form societies, and societies form
governments, in order to assure the enjoyment of "natural" rights.
lLocke defined government as a "social contract" between rulers

Theory and ruled.

of Locke was of the opinion that citizens should give allegiance

only to a government that protects their human rights.
Rights
  The main limitations of Locke's theory is that –
he did not consider the claims of all people. In fact, his actual
focus was the protection of the rights of European men owning
property. Women, along with indigenous peoples, servants, and
wage labourers, were not recognized as full rights-holders.
Still, it can be remarked that the theory of Locke was an
Limitations important breakthrough.
 General Classification of Rights :-

1. Positive rights
2. Negative rights
3. Moral rights
4. Legal rights
5. Human rights
6. Natural rights
7. Civil rights
8. Inalienable rights
  Classification of rights by Hohfled :-
 Hohfled has classified the rights into four basic categories viz.
Claim, liberty, power, ind immunity.
 The brief description of these is as under
 (1) Claim: It is entitlement of a person to get something from
another person.
 (2) Liberty: It means privileges, licenses or permissions/
freedom to do something.
 (3) Power: It means the authority given to someone. In other
words, it is the legitimate power.
 (4) Immunity: It means some special legitimate power to
thwart others power in some circumstances.
  Constraint theory:
It states that rights are constraints or restrictions on what we may
do to promote good ends of optimal outcomes-limits on what it is
permissible. to do, even to achieve noble ends or the greater good.
It provides rights a non-instrumental status but may take them to be
derivative of other sorts of constraints, including obligations or
duties.
Other Relevant
Theories  Instrumental theory:
It claims that moral rights are instruments either for promoting
valuable ends or outcomes or for acknowledging the moral status
of persons. Such theories assign rights and respect for rights a
derivative status. For a few practical purposes, rights function as
if they were constraints.
  End-state theory:
This is also known as goal-rights theory. According to this theory,
if the duties are fulfilled and the rights are not violated and if they
are respected, then these are valuable ends in n is self and,
therefore contribute towards the overall value of states of affairs.
It assigns rights and respect for rights a non-derivative status, as
Other Relevant intrinsic goods and ends to be promoted. This theory does not
consider rights as constraints.

Theories
Theory
of
Justice
  The main proponent of the theory of justice is John
Rawls(1921-2002), a contemporary Philosopher.
 John Rawls Theory of Justice held to the idea of “justice as
fairness.” This implies that every individual must be treated
with utmost dignity and respect, and it advocates for
comparable basic liberties, equal treatment for similar people,
Introduction and providing the most advantages to the socially
disadvantaged people in society.
 There are basically two theories of defining justice-Merit
Theory and Need theory
  Original position

Main concept of
theory of justice  Veil of ignorance
  Distributive justice:
It is the first and basic category. It is concerned with the fair
distribution of society's benefits and burdens among its members.
 Retributive justice:
CLASSIFICATIO
It is concerned with just imposition of punishments and penalties
N on those who do wrong: a just penalty is one that in some sense is
OF deserved by the person who does wrong.
JUSTICE  Compensatory justice:
Compensatory justice concerns the justice of restoring to a person
what the person lost and wronged by someone else.
  The Liberty principle
The liberty principle requires society to provide each citizen with
a fully adequate scheme of basic liberties. It states that every
persons basic liberties must be protected from interferences by
PRINCIPLES others. Moreover, each member of society must be entitled to an
equal right of liberties available to others.
GOVERNING
JUSTICE  The Difference principle
The difference principle requires that inequalities in wealth and
social position be arranged so as to benefit society' least
advantaged group. All possible steps must be taken to improve the
conditions of least advantaged section of society in order to
maintain justice, fairness and welfare.
  Several theorists who support the concept of rigorous
equality heavily criticized the John Rawls Theory of
Justice book, asserting that the inequalities permitted by
John Rawls theory are questionable even though they
support society’s underprivileged. They also asserted that
permitting certain disparities undermines the stability of
Criticism a well-organized society, which was discussed in John
Rawls Theory of Justice book.
 This means that a critical theory of justice focuses
primarily on unjustifiable social relations, whether
political or economic.
Thank you