Natural and Legal Rights By: Genevieve Lane. Natural Right Natural rights (also called moral rights or inalienable rights) are rights which are not contingent.

Natural and Legal Rights

By: Genevieve Lane

Natural Right

Natural rights (also called moral rights or inalienable rights) are rights which are not contingent upon the

Laws,

Customs,

Beliefs of a particular society or polity.

Legal Right

Legal Rights (sometimes also called civil rights or statutory rights) are rights conveyed by a particular polity, codified into legal statutes by some form of legislature and as such are contingent upon

Local laws,

Customs,

Or beliefs.

The Natural Law Theory

is a philosophical and legal belief that all humans are governed by basic innate laws, or laws of nature, which are separate and distinct from laws which are legislated.Natural law theory has heavily influenced the laws and governments of many nations,

The Importance of Legal Rights

The position of many important writers on legal rights is difficult to ascertain on this point, because it is not one they addressed directly.

Legal rights are, clearly, rights which exist under the

rules of legal systems.

Human Rights

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the notion of national sovereignty came under increasing challenge, 1899 and 1907, nations created laws governing the conduct of wars and handling of prisoners.Modern human rights law developed out of customs and theories that established the rights of the individual in relation to the state

When did this come about

The modern conception of human rights developed in the aftermath of the Second World War, in part as a response to the Holocaust, culminating in the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.

Natural and Legal Rights

“The lines between natural and legal rights, U.S. statesman James Madison believed that some rights, such as trial by jury are social rights, arising neither from natural law nor from positive law but from the social contract from which a government derives its authority”.

Natural law symbol Natural Justice

Some use natural law synonymously with natural justice or natural right although most contemporary political and legal theorists separate the two.

The use of natural law

The use of natural law, in its various incarnations, has varied widely through its history.

There are a number of different theories of natural law, differing from each other with respect to the role that morality plays in determining the authority of legal norms.