Abstract

This chapter lays out the model of rights used in the book, the mechanics of claims. It provides, in Section 3.1, a reason why a reader should care about the mechanics of claims. Section 3.2 lays out the foundation for this account of rights, one that rests on three basic principles: the Autonomy Principle, the Equality Principle, and the Welfare Principle. Section 3.3 explains how one can reason to conclusions about rights using the mechanics of claims. Section 3.4 discusses the meaning and significance of dignity. Section 3.5 explains how the mechanics of claims can ground the means principle, which grounds a fundamental explanatory challenge for a theory of criminal and penal law: how can it be permissible to use people as a means of deterring wrongdoing by others. Section 3.6 discusses how the mechanics of claims is relevant to incapacitation. Section 3.7 discusses the two-way relationship between the state and the rights laid out in the mechanics of claims: the state as bound by rights, and the state as shaper of rights.