Brief History of Natural Rights

European and American Thoughts on Life, Liberty, and Revolution

Nov 5, 2009

The theory of natural rights states that individuals, because they are part of nature, are born with basic rights that cannot be denied or violated by other people.

With the growth of individualism in Europe, natural law evolved from statements of ethical (if not necessarily legal) obligations into the concept of natural rights. The appeal of the idea of universal laws of towards humans was almost intuitive to men coming of age in a period where science and reason where idolized, and where universal laws of physics, chemistry, and biology were being unearthed at a spectacular rate.

Codification of Natural Rights

Capturing the spirit of the times, William Blackstone wrote that the main point of society “is to protect individuals in the enjoyment of the absolute rights which were vested in them by the immutable laws of nature... superior in obligation to any other.” This type of understanding of natural laws – or, more accurately, their Enlightened cousins, natural rights -- and their subsequent codification became en vogue throughout much of Europe, as well as the United States around the 18th Century. Among the most famous of these are the English Bill of Rights (1689) and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789) and the American Declaration of Independence (1776) and Bill of Rights (1789). "The English tradition of liberty,” writes Argyle “had been developed in America as the natural birthright of humanity.”

These documents are not composed solely of natural laws, but the positive laws contained within them can be seen as clarifications and protections of the natural laws. For instance, if one of our basic rights is to property, it follows that there be positive laws with regards to search and seizure; to protect freedom, there must be due process.

The Pursuit of Happiness

Adler posits that in the Declaration of Independence the most fundamental of natural rights is the right to happiness. “Happiness” is not meant in a psychological sense, but in the classical Greek sense of a life of balance, well-lived. It is our duty to work towards this sort of “happiness”, and the government’s duty to allow us – and to let others allow us – to pursuit it. Nothing can be achieved without life, so that is a “self-evident” right. A moral, mature happiness cannot be achieved without “liberty”, which means being hampered no more than our duty towards preserving others’ rights requires.

Natural Law and Revolution

Natural laws started as a way to legitimize rulers. In practice, however, the idea of natural law can bolster a government or be used by the opposition to legitimize a challenge. Beliefs in natural rights that had been trampled on helped foster a bloody revolution in France. In what was to become the United States, natural law was seen as the justification for doing something that many considered treasonous.

Rights that the state has not given, that is natural rights that people are born into, cannot be taken away by the state. Thus, trampling on a natural right without given individuals recourse to overcome the injustice triggers a right, if not an obligation, to “as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

References

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