Collective Rights

Abstract

Despite the neglect by political liberals in the distant and recent past to take collective rights seriously, the problem of collective rights is beginning to capture the attention of an increasing number of philosophers. This new concern for collective rights seems to be “the result of a recent interest in the value of communities.” Having in the previous chapter discussed some political dimensions of rights in general, I shall now clarify and assess some of the chief categories of collective moral rights talk and proffer some criteria of adequacy for a philosophical analysis of collective moral rights. Is it reasonable to ascribe to collectives moral rights, rights at least some of which ought to be protected by law? If so, then precisely which collectives ought to be attributed such rights, and under what conditions?