The Idea of Natural Rights: Studies on Natural Rights, Natural Law, and Church Law 1150 ¿ 1625 (Emory University Studies in Law and Religion)

Rating:
Summary: Table of Contents
Review: ACKNOWLDGEMENTS/ CITATIONS/ INTRODUCTION/ Modern Problems and Historical Approaches/ CHAPTER I/ Villey, Ockham and the Origin of/ Individual Rights/ Classical Roman Law/ Individual Rights and Roman Law/ Aquinas and the Canoninsts: Ius and Lex/ Ockham's "Revolution"/ Objections to Villey/ Alternative Approaches/ CHAPTER II/ Origins of Natural Rights Language: Texts and Contexts, 1150-1250/ The Question of Origins/ Sources of Modern Rights Language/ Canonistic Rights Language-Contexts/ Canonistic Rights Language-Texts/ Need and Natural Right/ Conclusion/ CHAPTER III/ Rights and Duties: A Quaestio of Henry of Ghent/ A Prisoner's Dilema/ Ownership of Self/ CHAPTER IV/ The Beginning of Dispute/ From Francis to Ockham/ Approaches to Ockham/ CHAPTER V/ Languages of Rights/ Hervaeus Natalis. Ius and Potestas/ Marsiliuis of Padua/ William of Ockham, Ius Poli and Lex/ Conclusion/ CHAPTER VI/ Property, Natural Right and the State of Nature/ Problems of First Acquisition/ Civilians, Canonists, and Theologians/ Bonagratia of Bergamo and John XXII/ Ockham on Property/ CHAPTER VII/ William of Ockham, Rights and Some Problems of Political Thought/ Origins of Jurisdiction/ Varieties of Natural Law/ Absolutism and Natural Rights/ A Rights-Based Political Theory?/ CHAPTER VIII/ Postscript/ CHAPTER IX/ Gerson, Conciliarism, Corporatism, and Individualism/ Individual and Community/ Tuck on Gerson/ Rights and Reform/ Ius and Dominium/ Chapter X/ Almain, Mair, Summenhart/ Medieval Survivals/ Mair, Rights and Needs/ Summenhart, Varieties of Dominion/ CHAPTER XI/ Aristotle and the American Indians/ Vitoria, Acquinas and Natural Rights/ Vitoria, Rights and Indians/ Las Casas, Indians and Rights/ CHAPTER XII/ Rights, Community, and Sovereign/ Vitoria. Sovereignty and Divine Right/ Saurez, Sovereignty and Natural Rights/ CHAPTER XIII/ Grotius. From Medieval to Modern/ The Question of Modernity/ Natural Law and Natural Rights/ The Right to Property/ Individuals, Society,and Sovereignty/ CONCLUSION/ BIBLIOGRAPHY/

Rating:
Summary: Natural rights have an origin in medieval thought.
Review: Natural rights historians and scholars have expressed numerous opinions regarding the origins of the western notion of natural rights. Tierney argues that the development of natural rights form the basis of the whole western natural rights tradition, and that scholastic philosophers employed concepts of natural rights in their reasoning as early as the thirteenth century. Citing the Franciscan poverty dispute, Tierney demonstrates that it had a lasting impact on the development of western notions of rights. Finally, Tierney's account of the ways in which the concept of natural rights--a medieval notion--made its way to the modern world is original and insightful. Future scholarly work on the origins of the western natural rights tradition must build on Tierney's findings.