Two Views of Collective Rights

Abstract

In this paper, the author distinguishes two views of collective rights, viz., rights of collective agents and rights to collective goods. His argument is that although both have a place in moral, political and legal argument, only the second can fulfil the political function generally assigned to collective rights, and that even it can do so only partially. Whereas the first view of collective rights focuses on the capacity condition, the second focuses on the benefit condition of rights. On this view, collective rights are distinguished not by the sort of agents they protect, but by the sort of interests they protect. An account of collective rights may be wanted for different purposes. First, we may seek a tool for the description and analysis of the variety of rights held under conventional normative systems.