Publication details
"The Justification of Basic Rights: A Discourse-Theoretical Approach", Normative Orders Working Paper Series of the Cluster of Excellence ‘The Formation of Normative Orders’ 02/2017.
Working paper
Author(s): Forst, Rainer
Year of publication: 2017
Abstract: In this paper, I suggest a discourse theory of basic legal rights that is superior to rival approaches, such as a will-based or an interest-based theory of rights. Basic rights are reciprocally and generally justifiable and binding claims on others (agents or institutions) that they should do (or refrain from doing) certain things determined by the content of these rights. We call these rights basic because they define the status of persons as full members of a normative order in such a way that they provide protection from severe forms of legal, political and social domination. The very ground of these rights is the status of persons as free and equal normative authorities within the order they are subject to. In other words, these rights are grounded in a fundamental moral right to justification.
Keywords: Justice; Justification; Law; Normative Orders; Rights
Research area: Research Area 1: The Normativity of Normative Orders: Origins, Vanishing Points, PerformativitiyResearch project: Power, Rule and Violence in Orders of Justification
Subject(s): political science, philosophy
urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-440266
Full text: http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/files/44026/Forst_Justification.pdf
