Abstract
In his influential paper, 'Are There Any Natural Rights?', H. L. A. Hart offers an account of the appearance of contractual rights (i.e., rights to the fulfillment of promises or contracts) which invokes the existence of a certain natural right, viz., the equal right of all men to be free.' At least one of Hart's purposes in providing this account is to establish a link between contractual and natural rights such that the existence of the former can be appealed to as evidence for the existence of the latter. Unfortunately, the specific account which Hart offers in terms of the equal right of all men to freedom is not satisfactory for this purpose. About B's contractual right against A, Hart says, "in the case of promises and consents or authorizations" B's "claim to interfere with another's [i.e., A's] freedom is justified because he [A] has, in the exercise of his equal right to be free, freely chosen to create this claim."2 About this passage, W. K. Frankena remarks,
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