Since law can be used to take your earnings, your property, your children, and your life I am of the opinion that law is something everyone should learn.
This is a draft first chapter in the first book in a series that I'm currently working on to explain rights and law to my own children and anyone else that is interested in defending themselves using law.
In our schools little if any real time is spent differentiating between rights and privileges.
In order to grasp fundamental concepts of law properly you need to be very clear about what rights are, what privileges are, and how the two differ.
Rights are innate, possessed by all people by virtue of birth.
Rights are not granted by governments, constitutions, religions texts, legislation, kings, queens, mafias, or any thing else.
Rights are innate and cannot be rightfully taken away from people no matter what some government actor or document claims.
Here are some of the rights that you (and everyone else) possess:
- The right to use your own body
- The right to speech or silence
- The right to travel
- The right to not be damaged by other people
- The right to agree or disagree with other people
- The right to eat the food you have raised and/or gathered
- The right to use things you have created
- The right to voluntarily interact (or not) with other people
Any reasonable man or woman should be able to clearly see that everyone has these rights.
The alternative to having these basic rights would be lack of self ownership (slavery).
Privileges are grants of trespass against rights
When someone agrees to let you violate their rights temporarily they are granting you a privilege.
Unlike rights, privileges are granted by someone (or some group) to someone else (or some other group).
Also, they can be taken away by those who grant them at any time for any reason.
If I invite you to come have dinner with me at my house I am granting you the privileges of accessing my property, entering my home, and eating some of my food. Without my invitation you would have no right to do any of these things except, arguably, passing across my property in the course of your travels without damaging or taking anything.
Should I tell you to get out then I would be effectively revoking your privileges to access my property, enter my home, and eat some of my food... at which point the right thing to do would be to leave.
Wrongs are violations of someone else's rights
If you violate someone else's rights without their consent then you are committing a wrong.
In English based law (the common law), wrongs that cause damage are called Torts.
Some example of Torts:
- Battery: Causing direct physical damage to someone else
- Murder: The unlawful killing of one human by another with malice aforethought
- False Imprisonment: Confining someone in a bounded area against their will
Notice that all of these are wrongs unless they are consented to. If the above are committed against (with) someone that consents to them then they are no longer wrongs:
- Battery becomes a physical contest such as a martial competition
- Murder becomes aiding another in taking their own life
- False Imprisonment becomes simple imprisonment
The phrase "Ignorance of the law is no excuse (for breaking the law)" comes from the ideas of rights, privileges, and wrongs.
Most torts require at least two things:
- one intentionally violate the rights of another
- damage was caused as a result of that violation (physical, mentally, emotional, financial, etc.)
Of course, sometimes the rights of others are violated unintentionally. In such cases the action may or may not fall under a tort of negligence.
Negligence is failing to take some action that a reasonable person would take to prevent injury to others. Negligence can take many forms but often is in relation to one of the following:
- Inviting people onto your property and them being harmed by falling in an unmarked hole, slipping on something, etc.
- Traveling on public roads and failing to do something prudent that results in damage to someone else
- Medical malpractice of various types
The key with negligence is that you fail to do something that any thinking person should know to have done in order to prevent accidental harm to another with your property or actions.
Granting of Privilege - A Matter of Right
You cannot grant a privilege to violate a right you do not have.
You cannot grant a privilege to violate the rights of anyone else.
This is an important idea as the logical conclusion is that no one (not even kings, queens, popes, governments, etc.) has the right to violate the rights of others no matter what.
As noted previously, the video Philosophy of Liberty does a pretty good job of illustrating rights:
This is only a rough first draft but questions, comments, etc. would be appreciated.
Previously published parts of this series are below:
Volume 1:
Chapter 2 will cover the purpose of law.
Once all chapters are published here I'll be combining them into a freely downloadable pdf/ebook and hopefully making low cost printed copies available as well.
The end goal is to provide a freely available set of books that anyone who can read, write, and think can use to learn their rights, stand on them, and defend them in a court of law if need be... with or without a lawyer.
To see additional chapters and volumes as I write them please feel free to follow me: @tony.jennings