ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with Green’s proposal to distinguish moral duties from legal obligations. In Green's view: 'A law is not good because it enforces natural rights but because it contributes to the realization of a certain end. The chapter insists that this social basis of rights which underlies the ordinary view that the possession of a right 'is conditional upon the recognition of certain obligations on the part of the person possessing it'. Unless and until this improvement is made and the inter-communal relations is raised to the level of morality, the question of mutual rights and obligations between them cannot arise. It summarizes the essentials of Green's doctrine in each case concentrating especially on the view of the scope and limits of government action as covered by the work of securing and protecting rights may well seem inadequate against the background of political life today.
