Mastermind and the road to Damascus

[Nicholas Bohm]

Roland Perry wrote:
> In article <a9f4d96f0902260737o5211f439s235187dda465bce@mail.gmail.com>,
> John Wilson <tugwilson@gmail.com> writes
...

>> Railway Photographers have special problems. If they are on stations
>> they are on private property and therefore have no general right to
>> take photographs.
> 
> At the risk of repeating tiresome debates on uk.railways, there is no
> need for a "right", any more than there is a need for a "right to wear
> brown suede shoes".

The word "right" has a wide range of legal meanings.  One of them is
"enforceable claim", and of course you don't need one of those to wear
suede shoes.  But another perfectly well-understood meaning is
"liberty", in the sense of a thing you can do without giving rise to any
claim by anyone else to prevent you; and a right (in that sense) to wear
suede shoes is just what you do have.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Newcomb_Hohfeld for a succinct
summary of the relevant analysis (although Hohfeld used the term
"privilege" for what I have called a "liberty").

I hope this explanation will make a tiresome debate unnecessary - feel
free to point uk.railways towards the light.

Nicholas
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