Fundamental Rights: Natural, Historical, and Ethical Foundations

Groundwork of Fundamental Rights

There are several positions regarding the groundwork of fundamental rights:

First Position: Natural Law as the Foundation

This position explicitly accepts natural law as the foundation for fundamental individual rights. It posits that "Man is a being endowed with reason and free will and has an end in itself. Consequently, the true philosophy of the human person rests on transcendent dignity."

Second Position: Rejection of Natural Law

This position rejects natural law as the basis for fundamental human rights. Instead, it argues that man, within the historical development of society, is covered with varying rights and subjected to the flow of history.

1. The Ius Naturalist Foundation

This perspective defines natural rights as rights that man possesses not as a gracious concession by positive rules, but independently of them and by the simple fact of being human. Human nature is involved, and these rights exist whether or not they are recognized by positive law.

• Tempered foundation: Contemporary ethical ius naturalism.

2. The Historical Foundation

This view sees human rights as variable rights related to each historical context, possessed by man in accordance with the historical development of society.

According to Manuel Periz, "the concept and formulation of human rights has been decanted through history from the broader theoretical core of humanity, understood not as emotional support, but as a process of self-consciousness, by which it has objectified the human essence as a unitary and abstract concept."

3. The Ethical Foundation

In this perspective, human rights appear as moral law, i.e., ethical requirements. Being human entails an equal right to recognition, protection, and guarantees from political power and the law. This right is based on being seen as human beings with an equal right to humanity, independent of any historical or cultural contingency, physical property, political power, or social class.

In short, the ethical foundation of human rights is based on the consideration of these rights as moral, understanding morality as the result of legal ethics in a twofold manner.