The Independence of Right from Ethics Allen Wood Right and ethics ...

value possessed by others as ends in themselves would ground the ethical claim that their rightshave on us as moral beings. They could never ground the entitlement of one person to haveanother person coerced or externally constrained to respect their rights. That last claim, to thecoercive enforcement of external freedom as independence of another’s choice, is one thatbelongs to right alone. It could not be derived from ethics, since the claims of ethics are neverentitled to coercive enforcement. Right therefore rests solely on the claim any person has on anyother, from the impartial standpoint of reason, to be left free to choose his actions in furtheranceof his own ends, rather than being forced to choose them to serve the ends of someone else.The basis of right is the protection of external freedom, however it is used, hence not onany of the ends individuals might set. But the condition of right, in which the external freedom ofall according to universal law is protected, is a condition into which we may all be coerced toenter (MS 6:256, 312). Preserving and perfecting such a condition can therefore also be seen asitself a kind of end. These are the sole legitimate ends of politics and civil law, the only ends thata ruler or politician as such may rightly seek, and all actions of the public authority may bejustified only in relation to these ends. But it is still never the case that coercion can be justifiedmerely because it serves some valuable end or other. Human perfection, happiness andflourishing, for instance, are valuable ends, but no one may be coerced to promote them justbecause they are valuable. It is not because the condition of right -- its establishment orpreservation -- may be brought under the general concept of a valuable end that we may becoerced into such a condition or coerced to obey its laws or to fulfill duties of right. Rather,coercion can be justified only because, it is needed for the preservation of the freedom of allaccording to universal law, and the condition of right, is nothing except the condition in whichthis freedom is protected.12