ABSTRACT
Based on several distinctions that Klaus Steigleder has clarified in his writings, a structural analysis of rights is proposed. An important distinction is drawn between the core of a right and its supportive parts. The core specifies the right-holder and a legal or moral condition that is considered to benefit the right-holder. This condition can be a permission for the right-holder to do something, an obligation that requires someone else to do something for the right-holder, or a state of affairs that should be obtained. In addition to the core, rights typically have supportive parts (adjuncts), such as obligations for others to protect the right-holder's exercise of her right, or at least not to obstruct it. This analysis is used in an account of conflicts between rights, in which the structural properties that lead to conflicts are identified and classified. The “conflict-free zone” of rights that everyone can have is contrasted with the rights that it is impossible for everyone to have, such as rights to power over others.
