Three desiderata for a theory of social rights

Abstract

In this paper I consider three desiderata that a desirable theory of social rights should satisfy: 1) non-triviality; 2) content-determinacy; and 3) scope. The first part of this paper aims to present and show the relevance of these three desiderata. The second examines how well one of the dominant approaches in the legal philosophy of social rights literature that grounds these rights in the notion of human dignity accounts for these desiderata. I show how this theory of social rights only satisfies some of the desiderata under examination but not all three. I conclude that the three desiderata allow us to filter out the good theories, to potentially amend weaknesses in other theories, and to compare and rank different theories according to their desirability.