Theory of legal rights presents a legalist or law-based position on origin, claim and nature of rights. It traces origin or source of rights in the form of enacted laws that have legal or positive authority behind them. Heywood defines legal rights as ‘rights which are enshrined in law and are therefore enforceable through the courts.’41 He further elaborates this by saying that legal rights correspond to positive law hence they are called ‘positive rights’ also. Legal rights, unlike natural rights, are not pre-existing and prior to civil society and political authority. They are product of a definite source in the form of sovereign and the state. Theory of legal rights properly speaking is a theory of state-created rights. Legal rights are rights, which are prescribed by law and recognized by the courts of law as enforceable.
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