Rights and responsibilities / Leon Trakman and Sean Gatien.

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Challenging many time-honoured liberal assumptions, the authors present a controversial yet persuasive treatise, substantiated with sound scholarship, powerful argument, and the light of reason.

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CHOICE Review

The authors argue for a reconstitution of the concept of rights, the better to reflect and balance plural and competing interests in society. While standard liberal rights assume a symmetrical correlation between rights and duties, this formulation accords no protection to interests that cannot claim a right toward which a duty is owed. A reconceptualization would preserve both rights and goods but would add the idea of responsibilities owed to the protection of various interests not themselves protected by rights or by the state. Responsibilities would not be external limitations imposed on rights before the fact but would be internal to the notion of rights themselves and would be determined in particular contexts in accordance with the detrimental effects of the exercise of rights on others. The authors apply their model in detail to freedom of expression, reproductive freedom, the interests of native cultures, and international environmental interests. Although agreement to this reconstruction would be difficult, particularly internationally, they argue that it is in the interests of rights holders as well as others. This book is a provocative attempt to qualify liberal individualism by developing a conception of shared liberties in which rights are still central. Recommended for upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and faculty collections. E. R. Gill; Bradley University