Rightsrights

Rightsrights is a term that has appeared in contemporary discourse as a neologism to capture the idea of rights about rights or the layered character of rights within societies. It is not a formal legal category, but a conceptual tool used by scholars and activists to highlight how different kinds of rights—civil, political, economic, and social—support, enable, or condition one another.

Usage and scope: The term is used across philosophy, constitutional law, and digital governance. In philosophy, rightsrights denotes the view that the realisation of one right often depends on others—for example, freedom of expression may require due process, access to information, and safety from coercion. In legal analysis, it underscores the interdependence of rights within constitutional structures and international covenants, suggesting that remedies for one right may involve upholding related rights. In digital rights debates, rightsrights can describe how data rights, privacy, and freedom of expression interact with rights to security and nondiscrimination in online environments.

Critique and reception: Some scholars view rightsrights as a useful heuristic for thinking about interdependence, while others warn that it can be vague or redundant. The term is most valuable when accompanied by concrete definitions of which rights are involved and how they depend on one another.

See also: Human rights, Civil rights, Rights-based approach, Interdependent rights.