Private property rights

According to the classical liberal view, a secure system of private property rights is an essential part of economic freedom. Such systems include two main rights: the right to control and benefit from property and the right to transfer property by voluntary means. These rights offer people the possibility of autonomy and self-determination according to theirs personal values and goals.[21] Economist Milton Friedman sees property rights as "the most basic of human rights and an essential foundation for other human rights."[22] With property rights protected, people are free to choose the use of their property, earn on it, and transfer it to anyone else, as long as they do it on a voluntary basis and do not resort to force, fraud or theft. In such conditions most people can achieve much greater personal freedom and development than under a regime of government coercion. A secure system of property rights also reduces uncertainty and encourages investments, creating favorable conditions for an economy to be successful.[23] Empirical evidence suggests that countries with strong property rights systems have economic growth rates almost twice as high as those of countries with weak property rights systems, and that a market system with significant private property rights is an essential condition for democracy.[24] According to Hernando de Soto, much of the poverty in the Third World countries is caused by the lack of Western systems of laws and well-defined and universally recognized property rights. De Soto argues that because of the legal barriers poor people in those countries can not utilize their assets to produce more wealth.[25] Pierre Proudhon, a socialist and anarchist thinker, argued that property is both theft and freedom.[26]

Institutions of economic freedom

Classical liberals argue that the rule of law both requires, and is required for economic freedom. Friedrich Hayek argued that the certainty of law contributed to the prosperity of the West more that any other single factor. Other important principles of the rule of law are the generality and equality of the law, which require that all legal rules apply equally to everybody. These principles can be seen as safeguards against severe restrictions on liberty, because they require that all laws equally apply to those with political and coercive power as well as those who are governed. Principles of the generality and equality of the law exclude special privileges and arbitrary application of law, that is laws favoring one group at the expense of other citizens.[18] According to Friedrich Hayek, equality before the law is incompatible with any activity of the government aiming to achieve the material equality of different people. He asserts that a state's attempt to place people in the same (or similar) material position leads to an unequal treatment of individuals and to a compulsory redistribution of income.[19] Both of those actions are contributing to a decline in economic freedom.

Economic freedom

Economic freedom is a term used in economic research and policy debates. As with freedom generally, there are various definitions, but no universally accepted concept of economic freedom.[1][2] One major approach to economic freedom comes from the libertarian tradition emphasizing free markets and private property, while another extends the welfare economics study of individual choice, with greater economic freedom coming from a "larger" (in some technical sense) set of possible choices.[3] Another more philosophical perspective emphasizes its context in distributive justice and basic freedoms of all individuals.[4]

Today the term is most commonly associated with a classical liberal (or free market) viewpoint, and defined as the freedom to produce, trade and consume any goods and services acquired without the use of force, fraud or theft. This is embodied in the rule of law, property rights and freedom of contract, and characterized by external and internal openness of the markets, the protection of property rights and freedom of economic initiative.[5][6][3]

Indices of economic freedom attempt to measure (free market) economic freedom, and empirical studies based on these rankings have found them to be correlated with higher living standards, economic growth, income equality, less corruption and less political violence.[7][8][9][10][11] These economic freedom indices are sometimes used to rank countries by economic freedom, and are usually topped by Hong Kong and Singapore. Between 1985 and 2005, only a small number of surveyed countries did not increase their Economic Freedom of the World score.[12] Some empirical analysis suggests that the index is not closely correlated with economic growth,[13] but regression analysis of the disaggregated components suggests that some specific freedoms contribute to economic growth while others hamper it.[14]

Other conceptions of economic freedom include freedom from want[1][15] and the freedom to engage in collective bargaining.[16]

Environmental rights

There are two basic conceptions of environmental human rights in the current human rights system. The first is that the right to a healthy or adequate environment is itself a human right (as seen in the both Article 21 of the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights, and Article 11 of the San Salvador Protocol to the American Charter of Human Rights).[91][92]. The second conception is the idea that environmental human rights can be derived from other human rights, usually - the right to life, the right to health, the right to private family life and the right to property (among many others). This second theory enjoys much more widespread use in human rights courts around the world, as those rights are contained in many human rights documents.

The onset of various environmental issues, especially climate change, has created potential conflicts between different human rights. Human rights ultimately require a working ecosystem and healthy environment, but the granting of certain rights to individuals may damage these. Such as the conflict between right to decide number of offspring and the common need for a healthy environment, as noted in the tragedy of the commons.[93] In the area of environmental rights, the responsibilities of multinational corporations, so far relatively unaddressed by human rights legislation, is of paramount consideration.[citation needed]

Environmental Rights revolve largely around the idea of a right to a livable environment both for the present and the future generations.