The Moral Foundations of Rights

The project examines the moral foundations of rights; it explores the sense in which humans 'construct' rights, and defends the claim that rights are necessary responses to certain independently valuable features of human beings (features whose value is independent of their being chosen or constructed as valuable). The project investigates the role of basic needs as the central valuable features which justify pre-legal 'human rights', and examines the sense in which such rights ensure that people are treated equally.