Moral constraint on the pursuit of an individual's goals. In particular, Robert Nozick, in Anarchy, State and Utopia, suggests looking at rights as side-constraints. This perspective is presented as one model of the structure of our moral views. Another he mentions is that the violation of rights should be minimized. Since the latter view would allow someone's right(s) to be violated if such a violation prevented a greater violation of rights, the issues concern picturing how rights operate and determining what strength to attach to them.

— Andrew Reeve

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Copyright © 1996, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.