Rights and Consequences: It All Depends

In: Canadian journal of law and society: Revue canadienne de droit et société, Band 7, Heft 1, S. 63-92

Abstract

AbstractIt is argued that there are no moral or legal rights that may never rightly be overridden no matter what the consequences. There are human rights which are inalienable while still being rightly overrideable in certain circumstances. Even rights-based constructivist accounts of human rights do not provide a grounding for morality that escapes consequentialist critique. But the proper form of consequentialism is a weak form of consequentialism which is distinguished from utilitarian consequentialism.