On Libertarianism and the Proprietary Understanding of Human Rights

O libertarizmu in lastninskem pojmovanju človekovih pravic

Luka Mišič

Synopsis:
The article deals with the theory of libertarianism which is clearly distinguished from the theory of liberalism and tries to answer the question of what exactly is “a libertarian understanding” of human rights. The author, already in the article’s title, offers an answer in a form of the “proprietary” understanding and through the text confronts the reader with the reasoning behind such an understanding. He points out several elements of the substantive and formal transformation of the traditional notion of human rights and basic freedoms needed for the notion to be coherent with the theory of libertarianism. The author understands the traditional function of human rights as a protective mechanism for the individual against the state and presents the libertarian understanding of the notion as a result of the libertarian understanding of one’s personal freedom that is based on the principle of self-ownership and the nonaggression principle by which every encroachment with one’s property (extending to his own body and will) has to derive from a consensus among (two) parties. Thereby human rights need to put on a new role in which they are completely dependent on the right to property (being the only natural and superior right) and function in a negative, relative and value-neutral manner.

Key words:
libertarianism, human rights, liberalism, right to property, freedom.

Full text (in Slovenian with English summary): PDF

Cite as:
Mišič, Luka: O libertarizmu in lastninskem pojmovanju človekovih pravic,
in: Zbornik znanstvenih razprav, 76 (2016), pp. 141 – 166, DOI: http://doi.org/10.23666/zzr201605

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