Individual law

The expression individual law ( Jura singulorum ) denotes a right that belongs to an individual in moral and legal philosophy. Examples are the right of an individual to freedom of expression and other freedoms as well as the z. B. rights formulated in Articles 1 to 19 of the German Basic Law, but also rights enforceable through other legal regulations such as pension claims. Opposite terms are e.g. B. social rights, cultural rights or so-called economic rights, d. i., rights that can only be asserted if the legal addressees have sufficient resources.

In debates on practical philosophy, for example, it is discussed to what extent, in principle and in specific types of conflict cases, individual rights are to be weighted against structural aspects, or how a preferential judgment can be justified in the case of a conflict between the individual rights of two or more people. In this and beyond, it is disputed whether individual rights are fundamental for normative ethics, possibly even as their sole basis. Positions that advocate the latter, such as John Locke and his followers, are referred to as libertarianism and are distinguished from families of ethical theories, e.g. For example, mutual obligations ( contractualism ), social roles and forms of life ( virtue ethics ), supreme moral principles (some deontological theories, such as that of Kant ) or the consequences of action with regard to benefit, enlargement of the common good or the fulfillment of preferences ( utilitarianism ) consider more fundamental. Hugo Grotius already developed a natural law justification of individual rights .

See also

• Group rights

literature

• Deryck Beyleveld: Individual Rights and Social Justice. In: Ludger Honnefelder , Dietmar Mieth and others (eds.): Genetic knowledge and the future of humans. Berlin 2003, ISBN 978-3110176421 , pp. 375-388.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ E.g. in Julian Nida-Rümelin : Theoretical and applied ethics: paradigms, reasons, areas. In the S. (Ed.): Applied ethics. The area ethics and their theoretical foundation. A manual (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 437). 2nd updated edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-520-43702-3 , pp. 2-87.
2. ↑ Cf. De jure belli ac pacis I, 1.