Unalienable rights
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The term Unalienable rights has a very specific and unique point of origination in the United States Declaration of Independence. Unalienable rights, which some have also linked to the term Inalienable rights, are stated to be an endowment by the Creator of men who are also defined as mankind and that the Creator is defined as being Nature's God and the author of the Laws of Nature. These unalienable rights include Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
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Context
Various interpretations have been given to the meaning of the term unalienable rights outside of the definition provided in the United States Declaration of Independence, however, what is plain from the original wording of the Declaration itself, is that God is the God of Nature and the laws which govern Nature. This God is also the Creator of mankind as equal creations and that the author or authors of the Declaration held these facts to be truths that are self-evident.
Unalienable rights v. Human rights
Other interpretations have attempted to link these equally bestowed unalienable rights with the more recent term human rights. However, human rights are manifestations of human government edicts and laws, and the documents which support claims to human rights do not lay claim that their authorship is Nature's God.
While the Declaration is unique in that it states that its authority is derived from Nature's God and that the unalienable rights bestowed by Nature's God have been bestowed equally, others had previously claimed a theory of a Divine Right of Kings, and thus a theory that some men are created superior to other men. The final wording of the Declaration attacks this very viewpoint, in as much that beginning with King James I of England and continuing through to the execution of King Charles I in 1649, only to be revived by others when the monarchy was restored in 1660, all authority was claimed to be derived from King Henry VIII as the Defender of the Church of England and the substitute for the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church whose leader claimed to be the supreme Vicar of Christ upon Earth as the primary representative of Jesus. The latter part of the Declaration, also made in the name of Nature's God, attacks the Christian King of Great Britain for attempting to start a race war in British North America.
Unalienable rights and Freeborn rights
Unalienable rights are clearly different from human rights and have more in common with the freeborn rights claimed by John Lilburne in his own fight against human tyranny - which included both the monarchy of King Charles I and the military dictatorship of the republic governed by Oliver Cromwell. Because Lilburne claimed that his rights were freeborn, he became known as Freeborn John and a medal was struck in his honor to this effect by his many supporters. Lilburne defined freeborn rights as being rights that every human being is born with. They are not rights bestowed by government or by human law.
Disputed authorship
The authorship of the Declaration has been disputed as to its point of origin, although its latter editing history has been documented and generally agreed upon by most scholars. Thomas Jefferson was one of the people who added several comments to the drafting of the Declaration, and Jefferson descended from John Lilburne. According to the United States Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, the origin of the United States Bill of Rights goes back to John Lilburne: his trials beginning in 1637 and his 1649 third draft (with others) of An Agreement of the Free People of England , a proposed written constitution for England. Because the Declaration is the precursor of the Bill of Rights, some attention must be paid to Black's conclusions which are now part of U.S. law (e.g. the Miranda warning). Consideration should also be paid to John Lilburne's earlier challenge against the same English monarchy and the dictatorship that followed in the name of freeborn rights. The Declaration is merely a continuation of that challenge against a monarch claiming the same authority as those who had gone before.
Quotes
- "A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." --Thomas Jefferson
Criticisms of the concept of unalienable rights
Critics of the notion of unalienable rights question whether unalienable rights (in themselves) exist or not. It could be argued that it is impossible to prove (either logically or empircically) that unalienable rights exist. Also, the existence of unalienable rights assumes the existence of God or a Supreme Being, which (some might argue) is not possible to prove. However, others support the same unalienable rights without assuming the existence of a God or a Supreme Being.
See also
- Declaration of Independence
- Nature's God
- Laws of Nature
- Thomas Jefferson
- Tom Paine
- John Lilburne
- Hugo Black
- John Lilburne Research Institute
- Human rights
- Moral universalism
- Moral relativism
- Prison
Categories: Articles to be merged | Law | United States historical documents | Core issues in ethics | Politics
