The author outlines an analysis of fundamental human rights compatible with historical relativism and applies this to the political right of freedom of expression and the economic right to work. Finally he deploys the proposed analysis of socialist rights to explain the ambivalence of socialist thinkers towards welfare rights in contemporary capitalist states and to analyze the logic of assertions that welfare law is often counter-productive.

1.Reformists and Revolutionaries 2. The Moralism of Rights 3. The Legalism of Rights 4. The Coerciveness of Rights 5. The Individualism of Rights 6. Socialism and Human Rights 7. Justificatory Principles 8. Political Rights: Freedom of Expression 9. Economic Rights: The Right to Work 10. Welfare Rights