Book Notes

The Proliferation of Rights: Moral Progress or Empty Rhetoric? Carl Wellman. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1999. Pp. 191. $19.95, paper.

In this thin volume, Carl Wellman addresses the recent proliferation of rights by investigating an assortment of historical and contemporary examples, drawing upon some of the most pressing issues contested in current rights theory. After an overture explaining the Hohfeldian framework of rights, Wellman quickly segues into a chapter-by-chapter topical discussion on five areas of “new” rights: the Development of Human Rights, the New Civil Rights, Women’s Rights and Feminist Theory, Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics, and Medical Rights. Within each section, he traces select alleged moral rights and legal issues presented in contemporary political discourse. He concludes with a more personal evaluation of where these rights are headed, and offers some commentary on what he views as the central elements of current-day rights discourse. The main portions of this text can be viewed as a primer in a few of the “new” rights. As a whole, the compendium serves as an introduction to Wellman’s views on the proliferation of rights in political, moral and legal dialogues in the United States. Wellman has previously explored some of these views in prior works, notably Welfare Rights, A Theory of Rights and Real Rights.

Each chapter of this book explores areas of rights that have seen considerable recent expansion. The New Medical Rights chapter, for example, explores the following areas: the right to give consent for participation in medical research; the right to an informed consent to therapy; the right to die; rights to medical care; and the potential right to assisted suicide. The

chapter on the New Civil Rights highlights the rights to nonsegregated education, interracial marriage, and preferential admissions policies (including racial discrimination and reverse racial discrimination). Wellman then identifies what are, in his view, the most significant sources of these rights. For example, a paragraph from an anti-miscegenation essay published by the Atlantic Monthly in 1956, along with citations of Gallup poll data and references to state statutes, serve both as evidence of the anti-miscegenation belief system and as examples of the predominant acceptance of its values. This history is augmented by detailed discussions of Loving v. Virginia, and of the propriety of declaring intermarriage as a moral right within Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The use of concrete examples drawn from a wide range of sources is informative and effective, especially as introductory material.

Other chapters rely more heavily on current arguments posited by rights theoreticians. The section on Women’s Rights, for example, draws from statistics, historical developments, and various congressional acts and international conventions, and then engages in a more piercing investigation of some areas of feminist theory. Wellman presents a ‘male’ conception of the value of rights—Joel Feinberg’s claims theory–and then discusses the theories of Elizabeth Wolgast, Carol Gilligan, and Martha Minow. Unfortunately, by establishing initially that the ‘accepted’ rights theory is a male-oriented one, and drawing on feminist theoreticians only in response to Feinberg, Wellman establishes the women’s theories as more reactive than revolutionary, thus unnecessarily limiting the potential application of these reconceptions exclusively to gender-based issues. He reinforces the primacy of this male conception by directly juxtaposing the Women’s Rights and Animal Rights chapters. The Animal Rights section features a more extensive explanation of Feinberg’s claims theory, and draws from James Rachels, H.J. McCloskey, and Tom Regan.

The Human Rights chapter is particularly smooth and well-organized. It examines three generations of rights development, focusing on a specific example of each: the first generation of civil and political rights recognized through the rights to asylum; the second generation social welfare rights, exemplified by the right to work; and the third generation, often labeled the solidarity rights, illustrated by the right to existence. Unlike much of the rest of the book, Wellman adopts international examples and references in this chapter. However, he refers mostly to interstate sources, in large part United Nations treaties. Given the radical adoption of rights within new national Constitutions—such as South Africa’s—further comparative analysis or intrastate documents could have been advantageous.

The primary goal of this volume is to serve as a short overview of the proliferation of rights (as established in the author’s introduction), though its brevity yields occasionally shallow treatment of very rich and complex social movements and histories. The cursory treatment is regrettable, though Wellman recognizes this and succeeds in exploring limited examples of

rights within each subject area in greater depth. Wellman’s perspective may also reveal an interesting point about the ‘recent’ proliferation of rights: some younger readers may be surprised to discover that rights often presented in an historical context, like school desegregation, are considered ‘modern’ in the overall conception of rights.

This book is a solid, easily accessible overview of some of the more pressing problems in Rights Theory. While the text is by no means simplistic, it serves as an introductory reader to issues in civil, feminist, medical and animal rights problems. Wellman supplies comprehensive lists of references for further reading at the conclusion of each chapter. Many readers, especially those just entering the field, will find these references helpful guides for further study. Overall discussion is well-paced, compact and readable. Wellman emphasizes some of the most important or influential trends in rights theories and posits articulate, incisive questions in each chapter that reveal some of the fundamental issues that must be considered before accepting these rights, or advocating for their further proliferation. His arrangement and analyses of the material are compelling, as are his commentary and conclusions. The Proliferation of Rights: Moral Progress or Empty Rhetoric is thus an enjoyable, challenging introduction to rights theory; an important construction of some many influential debates and ideas in today’s rights arguments.

—Amélie von Briesen

Copyright © 1999 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 12, Spring 1999