This course situates current debates about rights and their relations to law in historical context. Readings include classic and contemporary texts by philosophers offering diverse definitions, debating meanings and implications, and illuminating intersections between different types of rights. Questions discussed may include: Are rights universal, or relative, or particular? Are rights absolute, or qualified? Are rights natural, grounded in deliberation, or constructed through discourse? How do human, legal, moral, political and social rights differ, and why?