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6 Nirma U. L.J. 7 (2017)
Human Rights to Do a Moral Wrong

handle is hein.journals/nulj6 and id is 175 raw text is: 










                      HUMAN RIGHTS
                      TO DO A MORAL WRONG?**





                                                            Upendra Baxi*


I stumble on the question because the logically prior question to this
question is this: is there a moral 'right' to do a moral 'wrong'? And then you
come to the question - is there a human right to do a human wrong? Firstly
what the right itself is, is very problematic.

When I was teaching jurisprudence in Delhi, I used to ask my class, 'what is
the opposite of the word right'? During our conversation on jurisprudence, I
always said to my class that you must hunt in pairs, no word existed
singularly; there is always its opposite and if you are in the business of
interpretation like the judges or judge of judges, then you realize the truth of
this elementary maxim, namely, that 'words hunt in pairs and not singularly'.
If you are an Hegelian or Marxian, you would say words hunt in threesome
or in triad. You can start with two and move to three and then if you are
Mao, try to achieve even more!


** This is edited version based on a transcript of a lecture delivered by Professor Upendra Baxi as
a part of Annual Public Lecture Series organised by Institute of Law, Nirma University on 26
July, 2014. We treat this piece as a poser which articulates contours of human rights discourse.
We are thankful to Ms Rejitha Nair for transcription of this lecture and her engagement with this
write up until it became print worthy.
* Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Warwick, Gibett Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, United
Kingdom and Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Delhi, India Website:
http://www.upendrabaxi.in, https://warwick.academia.edulUBaxi The author can be reached
at baxiupendra@gmail.com.
' Freud, Marx and Nietzsche - the masters of suspicion will tell you that words hunt you in three
ways, in triad.