ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a goal-based justification for rights. According to consequentialism, an act's rightness or wrongness is a function solely of its consequences. Contemporary analyses of consequentialist theories have focused on the notions of the right and the good, which together are taken to define the theory. In order to render a consequentialist theory of rights practicable, the good must be somewhat restricted. A theory of justification specifies the basic principle that serves to indicate when an act is or is not justified. In the goal-based theory, the theory of justification informs that an act is right just in case it best promotes the goal. The function of the theory of decision-making is to provide practical policies and other information to aid fallible agents in achieving their goals most effectively. There are various possibilities regarding the form that a theory of decision-making in a goal-based rights framework might take.
