The notes as promised...

Two kinds of rights:

Moral Rights

Aquinas says:
~ God is the one who gives rights
~ God loves all the same
~ Gov't should protect those God given rights
~ The king owes the people the right to live in peace

Legal Rights
~Magna Carta was an agreement that spelled out certain rights the king was required to give the barrons and some others in England. It was signed in 1215. Do a wiki search to get the complete skinny on it. It became part of the basis for the US Constitution.

What does HOBBS say about rights?
~Rejects that God appointed king to have rights over subjects
~King is not immune from law
~ Only legit gov't comes from the consent of those being governed
~ Gov't by contract aka "Social Contract"
~ Fear, divine rule and people established gov't> ways (reasons?) a gov't is formed
~ We can do anything we want in a "raw" state of nature and therefor there is nothing in nature to protect individual people
~ People by nature are cruel and selfish if left to their own devices
~ Gov't and power it has needed to civilize people
~ Gov't can ask as the protector citizens
~ Gov't of law not people and those people are bound to those laws
~ W/o gov't there is no right or wrong
~ In our covenant with gov't we trade some rights to protect others
1. Each man is free to use his will and power
2. Peace and security and equal rights for all
3. When contract is in place, to break the contract is unjust to the whole of society as in everyone feels the pain when someone steals (that's why theft in court it is not Joe Blow V Sticky Fingers and instead it is the State of Minnesota V Sticky Fingers).

The Peasant Uprising
~ Magna Carta applied only to the certain English people. Peasants, as usual got the shaft.
~ Decided they too wanted those God-given rights
~ Black Death, which killed in some places a third of the population, helps raise the value of workers
~ John Ball aka The Mad Priest from Kent, organizes the peasants to go to the king to demand their rights
~ March builds as it heads through Essex
~ King Richard is asked wtf to do with 10,000 protesters on the way and only 3000 palace guards
~ He says to blockade the city to protect the palace
~ Watt Tyler w/ peasants organizes them to kidnap nobles and goes so far as to execute 3 of them
~ King double-crosses the peasants by saying he will give them their rights but then sets about crushing the rebellion and killing as many as he can
~ John Ball escapes, seeks sanctuary at Kent Church, king burns it down to get to him, and then hangs and draws and courters the poor chap.
~ It'll be 300 years before the an English Bill of Rights for all is signed
~ For the bill if rights, the people choose to from it around rights from nature philosophy and not rights from God

Hopefully y'all will be able to take good notes in class to fill in anything I missed, mainly dates to give you a better historical reference.

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