Human rights
A set of common legal rights enacted from global institutions, such as the United Nations or the International Court of Justice, often added-to at the regional- or state-level by additional clarification by other national agencies. However, as these rights are given legal force by nation states, countries with ineffective or corrupt legal systems can easily obstruct people’s human rights – meaning they have no such rights at all. Likewise, property rights are generally framed in global agreements as a ‘positive right’ to do what their owners wish. In contrast, human rights are generally framed as ‘negative right’, giving individuals (and corporations) the ‘freedom from’ certain ills enacted by states but few ‘freedoms to’ be entitled to act or live in a certain way. Intrinsically this gives an in-built advantage to the wealthy to exert power over everyone else since their rights are framed positively; and that differential is at the root of growing national and global inequality.
See also: Body corporate, Property rights, Natural person, Statism.