Browsing by Author "Meyerson, Denise"

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    A justification for rights
    (1992) Benatar, David; Meyerson, Denise
    This thesis provides an argument in favour of there being natural rights. Such rights are rights which creatures necessarily have in virtue of their nature alone. These are to be distinguished from non-natural rights which may or may not be acquired. It is argued that natural rights possess three features: (1) they have correlative duties; (2) they have great strength; and (3) they are exclusively negative. It is argued further that that the strength of some natural rights must be absolute. One chapter is devoted to arguing against the justifications for rights advanced by Immanuel Kant, Alan Gewirth and John Rawls. Another chapter shows that the problem with utilitarianism is that it cannot satisfactorily accommodate rights. This thesis claims that morality must be connected to well-being and that well-being should be understood objectively rather than subjectively. Further, it advances the view that since individuals, rather than societies or temporal stages of individuals, are the morally significant units of existence, morality should be connected to the well-being of individuals. It is then argued that a moral tool possessing the features which absolute natural rights possess is essential to moor morality to individual well-being. Given the great strength of absolute rights, they must protect only the most important objective interests an individual subject has and they must protect against only the most severe violations of these interests. Various scales of harm to the individual are envisaged, including scales of pain, injury and restriction of liberty. The view is advanced that absolute rights come into existence at a particular threshold on these scales, absolutely protecting the individual from having to make a sacrifice of that degree or greater. Although absolute natural rights have this important function they I are not seen as being the only principles on the moral landscape or even the only nonderivative ones. A few chapters are devoted to applying the theory to a number of questions, including what absolute rights there are and what creatures have rights. The thesis also answers a number of common criticisms of natural rights.
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    When equality and freedom of contract meet: a consideration of the horizontal application of the Bill of Rights
    (1998) Erasmus, Andre Alexander; Meyerson, Denise
    The application of human rights to private relationships is a difficult question that must be answered by all legal systems which have accepted human rights as binding upon their law. To answer this question a State has to make fundamental ideological decisions, both as to its role in society and the individual citizen's right to self-autonomy. Is law to be neutral, leaving private citizens to order their relations without intervention from the State? Or, should it play a more active transformative role by regulating and organising society to accord with a particular set of moral values and economic objectives? This dilemma is a current which runs through most contemporary moral and human rights discourse. It is not merely of abstract or academic interest. Both the reach and content of the law will be determined by which approach may prevail.