The Origin of Human Rights from Viewpoint of Natural Laws and Positivistic Schools  (Effects & Consequences)

Bandehali, Farshid; Mazhari, Mohammad

The Origin of Human Rights from Viewpoint of Natural Laws and Positivistic Schools (Effects & Consequences)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

farshid bandehali ¹

Mohammad Mazhari ²

¹ Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, University of Tabriz, Iran.

² Assistant Professor, University of Tabriz

Abstract

The origin and concept of human rights is one of the most controversial issues in the philosophy of law, on which the schools have deeply imposed inconsistency. Therefore, the present study utilizes a descriptive-analytical view to examine the viewpoints of some theorists of natural laws and positivism schools to show how the mentioned philosophical-legal discourse has given a new form to the relationship between human rights and politics through institutionalizing a conception of law as manifestation of fundamental rights. The resources were collected through library method. In this regard, the main research question is “what are the effects and consequences of this historical dispute in the interactions of the two rightful concepts of “government” and “citizen”? The results show that naturalists consider human nature or the rulings of the "natural god” as the origin of the creation and imposition of these rights. On contrary, the positivists believe that moral values created in this way cannot establish a fair order of rights. Therefore, they do consider human rights just as a legal system dependent on a certain society. This is an intellectual controversy that eventually led to issuance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights after World War II, in a form inspired by the positivist legal order and with a nature as of human rights.

Keywords

Natural Rights

Positivism

Right

Freedom

Law