This collection of facsimile articles reprints essays of ethical philosophy from the twentieth century that debate the nature of entitled rights and imposed obligations, issues that form the basis of the modern concept of civil society. What is the foundational basis and meaning of a natural, a civil, a universal right or duty? Who is entitled to rights and obliged by duties? What kind of right or duty is work, life, speech, property, welfare. These are the timeless and timely issues of interest to students of philosophy, law, and policy and international relations.

Table of Contents:
Rights Hohfeld, Wesley Newcomb. Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning Yale Law Journal 23 (1913): 16-59 McCloskey, H. J. Rights Philosophical Quarterly 15 (1965): 115-127 Feinberg, Joel. The Nature and Value of Rights Journal of Value Inquiry 4 (1970): 243-257 Hart, H. L. A. Bentham on Legal Rights, in Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence (Second Series), edited by A. W. B. Simpson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973): 171-201 Dworkin, Ronald Taking Rights Seriously, in Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence (Second Series), edited by A. W. B. Simpson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973): 202-227 MacCormick, D. N. Rights in Legislation, in Law, Morality and Society, edited by P. M. S. Hacker and J. Raz (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977): 189-209 Wellman, Carl. Legal Rights, in Uppsalaskolan-och efferat, (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1978): 213-221. Raz, J. On the Nature of Rights Mind 93 (1984), pp. 194-214 Thomson, Judith Jarvis. Self Defense and Rights, in Rights, Restitution and Risk, edited by Judith Jarvis Thomson, (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1986): 33-48 Duties Ross, W. D. What Makes Right Acts Right? The Right and the Good (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930): 16-47 Hart, H. L. A. Legal and Moral Obligation, in Essays in Moral Philosophy, edited by A. I. Melden (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1958): 82-107 Brandt, R. B. The Concepts of Obligation and Duty Mind 73 (1964): 374-393. James K. Mish'Alani. 'Duty', 'Obligation' and 'Ought' Analysis 30 (1969), pp 33-40 Ladd, John Legal and Moral Obligation, in Political and Legal Obligation: Nomos XII, edited by J. Roland Pennock and John Chapman (New York: Atherton Press, 1970): 3-35 Hacker, P. M. S. Sanction Theories of Duty, in Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence (Second Series), edited by A. W. B. Simpson, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973): 131-170 Chisholm, Roderick Practical Reason and the Logic of Requirement, in Practical Reason, edited by Stephen Korner (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974): 1-17 Raz, J. Comment: Reasons, Requirements and Practical Conflicts, in Practical Reason, edited by Stephen Korner (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974): 22-35