What is a right?

What is a right? This question has been asked thousands of times over the course of history, been debated by philosophers and far wiser men than this total idiot, and, forgive me if I should parrot their arguments without going too deeply into them. The nature of rights was discussed by some of the greatest liberty-minded men, and equally discussed by the greatest despots.

There are those that insist rights lie in the majority, that it is the will of the majority that establishes and creates rights. This will, this power, ideally benefits the majority more than it inconveniences the minority. This is the nature of pure democracy, the power of the majority determining what all will receive, for better or ill.

This document, however, discusses rights in the nature of a constitutionally limited republic, under the common-law tradition, as understood and argued by the founders of the United States government. Rights in this system are not things established or created by social contract, not placed under the heel of the majority or minority, but discussed as intangible, but vital property. One of these rights, in fact, is a circular one, a right to have property... as well as an essential property within that right. Rights, in this system of government, are individual, existing even outside of the majority.


To understand rights, therefore, one must understand the nature of property. A property, in the loosest sense, is anything in which the individual or society places value. Any property has several essences, the first, dominion, the second control, and the third disposition. Some properties are considered inalienable, properties protected even from the action of the owner, prohibited from transfer by any means, including by consent. Other properties are considered to be alienable, capable of being transferred. There are properties in fee-simple arrangements, in arrangements of trust, of lease, and more complex contractual estate and escrow.

The essence of property is something that one has a right to, and has dominion and control over, something that one places value within, and that one has increased with his or her work. Property is not the thing, it is the right within the thing.

This seems yet another circular argument, but remember that one of our rights is to have property, and, as Madison said, also a property in our rights. This right to property in rights, is the very right to have rights. It is an inalienable property, as we establish the value ourselves, and according to our effort, defend that value. The right to have property, and the right to have rights, may well be the essence of the argument.

We have a right to live, a right shored up by the arguments of our founders, and the works of Manegold, John of Salisbury, and many of the philosophers. That right was bound within the Declaration of Independence, and recognized by the Common Law and the Constitution and laws of the states. We could not commit murder without depriving another of that right, and for that loss of right, we forfeited our own lives. We could not steal the property of others without losing that property, and making just recompense from our own for any dimunition of it. We could not take things from another's property, without recompense. If we took wood from the property of another and made it into furniture, the wood must be paid for in a fair market value, but the property within our labor remains ours.

Perhaps the best definition of a right is a property interest that leaves all others to enjoy the same property, without dimunition. If one takes the right to breathe, all others share that same right. If one chooses to defend his or her home against those who would take it, he or she still leaves all others that same right. If a person takes another person's property, he does not leave the other the same right within their property. If a person takes another person's life... he cannot give just recompense for that life.

A right, therefore, to be a right, must be something that allows all others the same use of the same right. The right to have, own, and protect property, for instance, is not the same as a right in any given property, but is a right to the property of one's own opinions, one's own hands, and one's own work. If this leads to property in a real, tangible sense, than it is a right to dominion and control over that property.

We have the right to live our lives in a way that does not diminish the lives of others. We have the right to property. We have the right to liberty, for liberty leaves all with the same enjoyment of rights. We have the right to equality under the law, without regard to our station, without regard to our past, without regard to any status humanity may place upon us. That is liberty. We have the right to property, so long as we leave others the same right. We have the right to defend all of the above against all takers, so long as we leave others free to do the same.

The moment we restrict those rights of another, our own are fundamentally insecure. We are outside of our rights when we choose to limit what rights another may exercise, while still enjoying that right ourselves.

At that moment it ceases to be a right, for we are diminishing the rights of others.

There are established ways and means of suspending these rights, as punishment for a crime until the sentence is complete. This is the means of judge and jury, as well as having the jury know the full punishment for the crime the person is being charged with. The jury is the full arbiter of both the facts in the case, the law in the case, and the moderator against the excesses of the legislature.

That is a social right, the right to a fair and speedy trial. It is likewise a right to have the punishment be of limited, express scope, and only for a very limited period of time.

Otherwise, what happens? We may make laws applicable to some, but not to others. This is called attainder. When the legislature determines those upon whom the law is to operate, rather than making general laws, attainder applies. The only just and applicable power applies to all, regardless of situation, equally.

That is the rule of law. It does not matter if the law is criminal or civil, if it only applies to some, it is attainder. It does not matter what the past of the individual is, if the court, and jury adjudicate that the person is to be limited, that is within the powers of the jury, not the powers of the legislature.

Given this power, the legislature makes monopolies rise, benefits their friends at the expense of the general public, and creates scapegoats to take the aggression and attention of the people from their own misdeeds. They give handouts on one hand, take things on another, and exempt themselves from their own laws.

This can never be beneficial to a society, even in the short run. It destroys the government, destroys the respect in the rule of law, and the nature of law. It can never be allowed to gain foothold and flourish in our constitutional republic, and even the states themselves are prohibited from exercising such powers.

But do the protections still exist? Look around you. Even this total idiot sees what has been done. Are you willing to see?