InhaltsangabeAcknowledgements. Introduction. 1: The Concept of Rights. 1.1. Some agreements about rights. 1.2. The moral status of rights. 1.3. The meaning of having rights. 1.4. Conditions of absence of rights. 1.5. Summary. 2: The Identity of Right-Holders. 2.1. Some acknowledged characteristics of right-holders. 2.2. A few remarks on the concepts of possible right-holders. 2.3. Alan Gewirth's theory of rights. 2.4. The priority of a system of rules. 2.5. Melden's theory of rights. 2.6. The integrated conception of a moral agent. 2.7. Summary. 3: The Withdrawal of Rights. 3.1. Some related positions regarding the withdrawal of rights. 3.2. Towards a new conception of the withdrawal of rights. 3.3. Who has the authority to withdraw rights. 3.4. The justifying ground for the withdrawal of rights. 3.5. Some clarifying remarks. 3.6. Summary. 4: Punishment. 4.1. General introduction and preliminary remarks. 4.2. The forward-looking approach to punishment. 4.3. The backward-looking approach to punishment. 4.4. An integrated justification for punishment. 4.5. The 'fair-play retributivist' or 'rights-retributivist' approach toward punishment. 4.6. Capital punishment. 4.7. Summary. 4.8. Appendix: Non-legal withdrawal of rights. 5: Rights of Partial Members of the Moral Community. 5.1. Children's rights. 5.2. Fetuses' rights: the morality of abortion. 5.3. Abortion as a conflict between rights. 5.4. Does abortion strike at the sanctity or value of life? 5.5. Rights of mentally retarded persons. 5.6. Summary. Conclusions. References. Index. Notes.

InhaltsangabeAcknowledgements. Introduction. 1: The Concept of Rights. 1.1. Some agreements about rights. 1.2. The moral status of rights. 1.3. The meaning of having rights. 1.4. Conditions of absence of rights. 1.5. Summary. 2: The Identity of Right-Holders. 2.1. Some acknowledged characteristics of right-holders. 2.2. A few remarks on the concepts of possible right-holders. 2.3. Alan Gewirth's theory of rights. 2.4. The priority of a system of rules. 2.5. Melden's theory of rights. 2.6. The integrated conception of a moral agent. 2.7. Summary. 3: The Withdrawal of Rights. 3.1. Some related positions regarding the withdrawal of rights. 3.2. Towards a new conception of the withdrawal of rights. 3.3. Who has the authority to withdraw rights. 3.4. The justifying ground for the withdrawal of rights. 3.5. Some clarifying remarks. 3.6. Summary. 4: Punishment. 4.1. General introduction and preliminary remarks. 4.2. The forward-looking approach to punishment. 4.3. The backward-looking approach to punishment. 4.4. An integrated justification for punishment. 4.5. The 'fair-play retributivist' or 'rights-retributivist' approach toward punishment. 4.6. Capital punishment. 4.7. Summary. 4.8. Appendix: Non-legal withdrawal of rights. 5: Rights of Partial Members of the Moral Community. 5.1. Children's rights. 5.2. Fetuses' rights: the morality of abortion. 5.3. Abortion as a conflict between rights. 5.4. Does abortion strike at the sanctity or value of life? 5.5. Rights of mentally retarded persons. 5.6. Summary. Conclusions. References. Index. Notes.

...nominated for the North American Society for Social Philosophy 2003 Book Prize...