Moral Foundations of Civil Rights Law

The idea of civil rights continues to arouse intense controversy. Despite the great advances in civil rights law during the past generation, American public life is still marked by severe disagreements over whether individuals and, especially, groups have rights to receive certain kinds of help from...

Description complète

Enregistré dans:  
Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Gewirth, Alan 1912-2004 (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Publié: 1987
Dans: Journal of law and religion
Année: 1987, Volume: 5, Numéro: 1, Pages: 125-147
Accès en ligne: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Résumé:The idea of civil rights continues to arouse intense controversy. Despite the great advances in civil rights law during the past generation, American public life is still marked by severe disagreements over whether individuals and, especially, groups have rights to receive certain kinds of help from the state not only in the social and economic spheres but even in such matters as demarcation of voting districts and other political arrangements. The disagreements bear on the applications of certain basic principles of communal life and on the contents of the principles themselves.In this paper I will explore four avenues. First, I shall briefly analyze some of the main elements in the concept of civil rights law in order to clarify why the law needs moral foundations, and how civil rights are related to the human rights that are the central concern of morality. Second, I shall show how the moral principle of human rights can itself be rationally justified. Third, I shall briefly develop certain applications of this moral principle to the economic problems that constitute some of the main areas of controversy in civil rights law. Fourth, I shall indicate how the moral principle of human rights bears on certain residual controversies about the applications of civil rights law to the problems of affirmative action and preferential treatment.
ISSN:2163-3088
Contient:Enthalten in: Journal of law and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.2307/1051021