ABSTRACT
This chapter explores holders and bearers interplay in the context of the problem of indigenous spoliation. Acts of spoliation are usually committed by those who occupy leadership positions that give them direct access to their country's wealth and resources. The Draft Code of Crimes has addressed the paradox of holding subordinates acting on orders of their superior responsible while leaving untouched those who planned, instigated, authorized or order the commission of crimes against international law. Political leaders hold greater power and therefore bear far greater moral responsibility than ordinary citizens. Criticism and rejection of the correlative rights theory gave rise to theories that seek to characterize rights by focusing on the kind of normative element that all rights contain. Functional theories of rights have been described as an alternative to the essential elements approach. The notion of the autonomy of rights is particularly well-developed in the writings of Carl Wellman and H. J. McCloskey.
