On the Justification of Basic Rights
In recent years, there has been much debate about the justification of basic moral rights. These rights set standards that any socio-legal system must honour in order to count as morally acceptable. The challenge, for those who find the idea of basic rights compelling, is to offer an account of where these rights come from. More precisely stated, the challenge is to explain by virtue of what members of a socio-legal system possess these rights.