Legal rights are rights conveyed by a legal or political entity; rights as enshrined in law. Contrast with natural rights, referring to rights in a purely moral or ethical sense, not contingent on local laws, beliefs, or customs. The specific enumeration of legal rights accorded to citizens has historically differed greatly from one century to the next, and from one regime to the next, but nowadays is normally addressed by the constitutions of the respective nations.
Generally speaking, rights in a legal context are meant in the sense of claim rights, corresponding with a complementary obligation that others have on the same object or realm; for instance if someone has a right on a thing, simultaneously another party or parties have an obligation to do something (in the case of positive rights) or to abstain from doing something (in the case of negative rights) in order to respect that right or to give concrete execution to that right. Legal rights may be individual rights, that are held by individuals recognised by the legal system, or they may be group rights, held by an ensemble of people or a subgroup of people who have a certain characteristic in common.
Important documents
The following documents have each played important historical roles in establishing legal rights norms around the world.
- The Magna Carta (1215; England) required the King of England to renounce certain rights and respect certain legal procedures, and to accept that the will of the king could be bound by law.
- The Bill of Rights (1689; England) declared that Englishmen, as embodied by Parliament, possess certain civil and political rights; the Claim of Right (1689; Scotland) was similar but distinct.
- The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789; France) was one of the fundamental documents of the French Revolution, defining a set of individual rights and collective rights of the people.
- The United States Bill of Rights (1789/1791; United States), the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution, was another influential document.
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) is an over-arching set of standards by which governments, organisations and individuals would measure their behaviour towards each other. The preamble declares that the "...recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..."
- The European Convention on Human Rights (1950; Europe) was adopted under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.
- The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) is a follow-up to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, concerning civil and political rights.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) is another follow-up to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, concerning economic, social and cultural rights.
- The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982; Canada) was created to protect the rights of Canadian citizens from actions and policies of all levels of government.
- The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2000) is one of the most recent legal instruments concerning human rights.
See also
|
