ABSTRACT
In contemporary political discourse, the concept of a right is most commonly invoked in order to block the infliction of a significant harm (or injury, or disadvantage) on some individual or group. It is the enforceability of obligations that are correlative with rights that makes it possible for rights to perform a second important function, viz., to provide a ground for mediating disputes between individuals and thereby provide a rationale for individuals to coalesce into communities. The authors have spoken of rights as if they were possessed only by human beings. Some philosophers have, for example, attributed rights to animals. Animals have interests, they can experience pain and pleasure, and if they could speak to us they would no doubt demand the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that we humans hold so dear.
