LEGAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AS DISTINCT FROM MORAL ONES
This chapter argues that legal human rights should be distinguished from moral human rights. I begin by examining various proposals for how to identify the difference between human rights and other kinds of rights. At least two proposals for how to do this within the universe of legal rights necessarily lack a counterpart for the parallel exercise with moral rights. I then proceed to argue that one of the proposals that is distinctive to the legal case should be rejected. However, that still leaves the interesting question of whether or not to accept nominalism about legal human rights (and why). Finally, I argue that legal human rights are morally independent of moral human rights. That is to say, a legal human right can be morally justified even when it does not stand in any justificatory relation to any moral human right.
