Rights and Responsibilities

A journalist asked me recently what I thought of a proposal of self-styled communitarians to “suspend for a while the minting of new rights.” How many ways, I thought, does that get it wrong? Communitarians seem to see rights as little boxes; when you have too many, the room gets full. In my view, we have only one right-or an infinite number. The one fundamental human right is the right to live your life as you choose so long as you don’t infringe on the equal rights of others.  Read more