Abstract

Hohfeld treats liberties as a normative relation between three elements: subject, content, and object. This chapter develops a working explanatory model of defensive rights by adding to these three elements a so-called end of a defensive right, defined as the good or value which a defensive action is intended to preserve or protect. Two of three legs that constitute the justification of self-defence are explored: those that revolve around the relationship between subject and the end of the right, and those that concern the relationship between the content and the end of the right.