What’s Wrong with Rights is a superb book. If there is one subject that lends itself to interdisciplinary research, it is that of human rights. To the extent that lawyers have ever been able to claim a monopoly, those days are now well behind us. In this book, Nigel Biggar makes a fundamental contribution from…
Though you might not know it, you’re probably familiar with the Biblical story of Barabbas. Appearing only briefly in the crucifixion narrative of the New Testament, Barabbas is the prisoner who was chosen by the crowd, over Jesus Christ, to be released by Pontius Pilate in a customary pardon before the feast of Passover. We…
Nigel Biggar is essentially right about rights. They are indeed paradigmatically legal. They are indeed conditional and limited. And it is indeed the case that they can neither be justly defined nor respected without attention to circumstances or without the virtues that enable agents properly to attend to the relevant circumstances. Biggar’s book What’s Wrong…
In a deeply divided nation, and especially after the events of January 6, 2021, no one is in a particularly forgiving mood. But times like these are precisely when we should make forgiveness part of our conversation. Luke 23:34 offers a simple admonition: “Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they…
A mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Perhaps its most visible leader was a man wearing a bearskin headdress, Viking horns, and red, white, and blue face paint. And wielding a spear. Arrested in Arizona on January 9, Jacob Chansley, a.k.a. “Jake Angeli,” also goes by the title “QAnon Shaman.” This is no…
In his book What’s Wrong with Rights?, Nigel Biggar argues that “the task is actually not to jettison talk about subjective rights, but rather to save it by re-setting it in a larger framework of objective right” (142). In Biggar’s view, advocates, activists, scholars, and, most problematically, judges claim that rights are natural, meaning they…
Despite the title, Nigel Biggar’s main objective, in this stimulating but debatable book, is not to discredit rights language entirely. He is perfectly content to support the value of a subjective legal right, which depends on the existence of the institutions of government. It is “the property of a human subject or individual,” and is…
Storming of the United States Capitol on 6 January 2021. Source: Tyler Merbler, Wikimedia / CC BY 2.0 In the days after the horrific insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, at least some participants are being brought to justice. Grievous miscalculations by the Capitol police and other law enforcement agencies left the seat of government poorly…
A New History of the Church in Wales: Governance and Ministry, Theology and Society, edited by Norman Doe An Overview by Norman Doe This paper draws on themes and materials explored in N. Doe, ed., A New History of the Church in Wales: Governance and Ministry, Theology and Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020) as…
Early in the morning on January 7, 2021, the Senate Chaplain Barry Black offered a prayer following the certification of Joe Biden as the lawfully elected President of the United States. Chaplain Black’s prayer was the conclusion of a long and dark day in the history of the United States of America. Only hours before,…