Rights

We take rights to be fundamental to everyday life. Rights are also controversial and hotly debated both in theory and practice. Where do rights come from? Are they invented or discovered? What sort of rights are there and who is entitled to them? In this comprehensive introduction, Tom Campbell introduces and critically examines the key philosophical debates about rights. The first part of the book covers historical and contemporary theories of rights, including the origin and variety of rights and standard justifications of them. He considers challenges to rights from philosophers such as Bentham, Burke and Marx. He also examines different theories of rights, such as natural law, social contract, utilitarian and communitarian theories of rights and the philosophers and political theorists associated with them, such as John Stuart Mill, John Rawls, Robert Nozick and Michael Sandel. The second part of the book explores the role of rights-promoting institutions and critically assesses legal rights and international human rights, including the United Nations.The final part of the book examines how philosophies of rights can be applied to freedom of speech, issues of social welfare and the question of self-determination for certain groups or peoples. Rights: A Critical Introduction is essential reading for anyone new to the subject of rights and any student of political philosophy, politics and law.

“'This book is a solid one for students. The text itself is clearly written. . .It is certainly a book that could be recommended to. . .upper level undergraduates and postgraduate students in law, philosophy, and politics.' Rex Martin, Australasian Journal of Philosophy”

‘This book is a solid one for students. The text itself is clearly written. . .It is certainly a book that could be recommended to. . .upper level undergraduates and postgraduate students in law, philosophy, and politics.’ Rex Martin, Australasian Journal of Philosophy

Charles Sturt University, Canberra, Australia

Rights is a central topic on any political philosophy course and this is an essential addition to the series. Campbell proposes to cover the key philosophical debates about rights and the contemporary critiques of the discourse as it has developed. He looks at the basics of rights: where they come from, how they are justified and he considers these questions in terms of the writings of figures such as Bentham, Mill and Marx. This is a highly controversial and topical subject and it is likely that there will be considerable interest from students taking a political philosophy or political theory course. The series as a whole has potential to sell into politics and philosophy departments and this book will also have take-up on ethics and philosophy of law courses. This is a particularly popular topic in the US. Our political philosophy and philosophy of law publishing programme has grown in the past couple of years and we have had success with a number of titles in the area (please see comparable titles). It is also worth noting that we are currently pursuing a second edition of Waldron's book 'Nonsense upon stilts: Bentham, Burke and Marx on the Rights of Man' (Methuen, 1987).

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