Rights (dignity-protected unearned section)

A right, in the τ-framework, is a dignity-protected section of the Commitment Register: a τ-categorical Reg_C-section that lives in the unearned summand and is invariant under all label-permutations. Rights are the structural dual of duties — where a duty (VII.L11) is a typed obligation-edge sourced from an agent, a right is a typed protection-edge directed at an agent that no other Reg_C-update is permitted to overwrite.

Categorical invariant. Ρ̂ = a Reg_C-section r such that r ∈ Reg_C^unearned (lives in the unearned summand of VII.D74) and r is invariant under the label-permutation action (dignity-equalizer of VII.D65); equivalently, r is a global section of the dignity reflector.

Primary registry anchor: VII.D65

Supporting items: VII.D04, VII.D74, VII.P25, VII.L11

1. I.K0 — Universe Postulate
2. VII.D04 — Commitment Register Reg_C with codomain Stance
3. VII.D74 — Earned/Unearned framework — rights live in the unearned summand
4. VII.L11 — Duty Typing Lemma — rights are dual to typed duties
5. VII.D65 — Dignity as Label-Independence — rights are the sections that the dignity reflector preserves
6. VII.P25 — Legitimacy as Recognition Coherence — rights are the institutional readout of the dignity invariant

A right is instantiated whenever an institutional Reg_C-section is recognized as protected against override by other commitment-updates. Examples: civil rights (life, liberty, due process); negative rights (freedom from interference); positive rights (claims to provision); animal rights (protection extended past species labels); future-generations rights (label-permutation across time).

Examples:

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights — canonical label-independent Reg_C-protections
• Negative rights (free speech, free assembly) — non-interference sections of unearned Reg_C
• Positive rights (right to education, healthcare) — provision sections that institutions must glue
• Due-process rights — procedural Reg_C-protections that no Reg_C-update may overwrite without warrant
• Animal rights — dignity reflector extended past species labels
• Future-generations rights / climate rights — label-permutation across time, not just identity
• Indigenous land rights — recognition-sheaf protections that survive colonial-state Reg_C-updates

Register codomain: Stance (Reg_C — a right is a global section of the dignity reflector on the unearned summand of Reg_C; structurally dual to the typed duty)

Manuscript reference: manuscript-sources/book-07/part07/ch88.tex

Status: Planned

Related glossary entries

• MG-C01-dignity Dignity (label-independence)
• MG-C04-earned-unearned Earned / Unearned framework
• MG-C06-legitimacy Legitimacy (recognition coherence)
• MG-C10-duty Duty / Obligation (typed Reg_C-edge)

Referenced by

• MG-C10-duty Duty / Obligation (typed Reg_C-edge)