Rights from wrongs : a secular theory of the origins of rights / Alan Dershowitz.

New York : Basic Books, 2004.

25163

Human rights.

Civil rights.

Acknowledgments

Introduction: where do rights come from?

1. The source of rights: 1. What are rights?

2. Is God the source of rights?

3. Is nature the source of rights? 4. Are there other "external" sources of rights?

5. Do constitutional democracies really need an external theory of rights?

6. Do we need to invent an external source of rights - even if it does not really exist?

7. Is natural law a helpful or harmful fiction?

8. What, then, is the source of rights?

2. Some challenges to experience as the source of rights: 9. Is there always a right answer?

10. If rights do not come from God or nature, how are they different from mere preferences?

11. Does the experiential approach confuse philosophy with sociology

12. Can rights produce wrongs?

13. Is the debate over external sources of rights a liberal-conservative issue?

3. Applying the experiential theory of rights to specific controversies: 14. Can experiential rights check the abuses of majority rule?

15. Is there a right "to life"?

16. Is there a right not to be censored by government?

17. Is there a right to have church and state separated?

18. Is there a right to emigrate and/or immigrate?

19. Do animals have rights

20. Do dead people have rights in their organs?

Notes

Index.

0465017134

ix, 261 p.