Natural rights are Rights which persons possess by nature: that is, without the intervention of agreement, or in the absence of political and legal institutions. Natural rights are therefore attributable to individuals without distinction of time or place.
A contrast may be drawn with positive rights; that is, those rights conferred or guaranteed by a particular legal system. Natural rights have been derided as nonsensical (by Bentham) on the ground that it is impossible to speak of rights without enforceable duties, and enforceability exists only when a potentially coercive legal system exists.
Furthermore, there has been no unanimity even amongst those who recognize natural rights as to their content. Natural rights have been seen as gift of God, as correlative to duties imposed on man by God, and as concomitant of human nature or reason, We might distinguish: (1) Natural rights (2) Moral rights and (3) Legal rights. The third are those recognized by positive law. The first are those asserted to be universal and thus guides to the proper content of any legal system.
The second are those which, it is claimed, should be recognized by particular legal systems or which, while not universal, should be recognized under existing conditions.
The classification of rights will depend in part on understandings of their purpose and of their consequences.
Who Confers natural rights on humans?