Hart asserts that if there are any moral rights at all, there is at least one fundamental natural right: the right to liberty. This right has 2 characteristics: (1) all people capable of choice have it, (2) is not generated by the voluntary action of people. The argument arises from the differences among rights, obligations, freedom. This means that having a right involves the moral justification for limiting the freedom of other people. This moral argument can be: (1) particular, deriving from special transactions among individuals, such as promises, authorizations and mutual restrictions (in the case of political rights) added to family relations and special permissions, and (2) general, which asserts the equal principle of all people to be free in the absence of any particular condition that would limit someone else’s freedom. (Laurentiu Gheorghe presents)

To read: Herbert Hart – Are There any Natural Rights?