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Concept
Negative and positive rights
Summary
The right of person A to obligate (enforce an obligation on) person B to refrain from (causal) physical interference with, in particular a purely interfering negligence tort against, some object or thing is called a negative right. So a negative right is a claim right. If a claim right is not a negative right, it is called a positive right. To every claim right of person A to obligate person B corresponds the obligation on B, so the obligation corresponding to a negative right is called a 'negative obligation' and an obligation corresponding to positive right a 'positive obligation'. Examples of negative rights are natural right to self-ownership and property like land and territorial sovereignty of the state. An examples of a positive right is the right of the government to enforce the law on all inhabitants or a sale contract to receive a product. Defamation, free-market competition or refusal to offer a delivery service are not forms of damage that are tortuously necessarily caused by an act of pure interference. Bans on these actions are positive obligations and the right to inviolability of these actions are positive rights.
In the naive definition negative and positive rights are rights that oblige either omission (negative rights) or action (positive rights). This definition makes both types of rights equivalent because the omission of X is the set of all action that does not involve doing X, is also an action. The naive definition of inaction, namely omitting all action, is impossible, but noninterference is. Negative rights may include civil and political rights such as freedom of speech, life, private property, freedom from violent crime, protection against being defrauded, freedom of religion, habeas corpus, a fair trial, and the right not to be enslaved by another.
Positive rights, as initially proposed in 1979 by the Czech jurist Karel Vašák, may include other civil and political rights such as the right to counsel and police protection of person and property.
Official source
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