Overview

• Rights are human concepts intended to prevent violence against each other. Whether they be Human Rights, Legal Rights, Natural Rights or Civil Rights, all rights are simply ideas and are helpful to the extent that agreeing upon them facilitates peaceful co-existence.

The two categories of rights relevant for 3L

1. Substantive rights
   • These refer to freedoms individuals are entitled to. Substantive rights themselves fall into two categories:
     • ‘Negative rights’: freedoms that others must not interfere with. Negative rights can be exercised without forcefully compelling anyone to do anything. An example is the right not to be aggressed against; the right to self-ownership.
     • ’Positive rights’: forcing others to do things for us. An example if the right to free healthcare, which, though a potentially worthy cause, requires aggressing against others to pay for it. In this way, positive rights require denying others their freedom to live as they choose.
   • PLEASE NOTE: The legal wording of ‘negative’ vs ‘positive’ rights is confusing. Rather than a value judgement, the word ‘negative’ is used because these rights require others to refrain from interfering. ‘Negative’ rights prevent aggressing, so are essential for peace and freedom, while ‘positive’ rights require aggressing, so are incompatible with the Legal Principle.
2. Procedural Rights
   • These are the processes by which substantive rights are upheld.

Foundation of 3L’s Legal Principle

• The Legal Principle is based on the negative substantive right not to be aggressed against, which itself requires procedural rights to be fairly upheld. All property rights stem from this right not to be aggressed against.
• This right not to be aggressed against is the only universally coherent substantive right there is, applying in all situations without contradiction.

Inalienable Rights

• Some rights are ‘alienable’, meaning you can transfer or contract them away (like property rights). Some rights, like the right of self-ownership (the basis of the Legal Principle) are ‘inalienable’, meaning they cannot be transferred; you can’t permanently give up your capacity to choose - even if you tried, you’d still remain the chooser.
  • This is why Thomas Jefferson wrote about self-agency in this way: “We hold these truths to be self-evident”.

Simple summary

• These legal terms can be confusing, but the essence is simple: there is only one right that the 3L Movement holds sacred, which is the right to act according to your will (”live”) **to the extent that it doesn’t prevent others doing similarly (”let live”).