Robust Rights and Harmless Wronging

This chapter examines a range of cases in which it appears one’s rights against harm are violated by another’s behaviour, even though this behaviour has done one no harm. These cases raise a serious problem for most theories of rights, though the problem is most pronounced on the Interest Theory of Rights. According to that theory, rights necessarily protect their holder’s wellbeing. At first glance, one might think that the person’s wellbeing cannot be said to be protected by the right in cases of harmless wronging because they are not harmed in such cases—so, the necessary condition set for the ascription of a right is not satisfied. This paper puts forward a novel solution to this problem, the Safety Condition. The Safety Condition looks beyond what happens in the actual world to close worlds in order that individuals’ wellbeing is robustly protected across circumstances that could just have easily come about.