Shue on Basic Rights

Abstract

This paper is a discussion of Henry Shue’s book Basic Rights: Subsistence, Affluence, and U.S. Foreign Policy, 2nd ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996). Shue’s account of “basic rights” is explained, and his argument that there is a basic right to subsistence is explained and defended against a certain kind of criticism. Shue’s argument entails a right to, and a duty to establish, a world government. Since such a government requires coercive power, the existence of such a government undermines other rights that follow from Shue’s argument. Thus Shue’s argument entails the existence of rights, not all of which can be guaranteed as required by Shue’s argument.