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The concept of freedom can only properly be understood within the overall framework of rights and duties, especially natural rights, such as life, liberty ("freedom"), and access to the means of acquiring and possessing property. Without this essential understanding, the exercise of any right - especially liberty - can and will be exaggerated to the point that its exercise on the part of the most powerful becomes absolute, while those who lack power cannot exercise their rights at all.

First, we need to understand what a "right" is. A right is the power to do or not do something in relation to another or others. "Duty" is the correlative of right, duty being the obligation to do or not do something in relation to another or others. Thus, if I have a right, you have the duty to allow me to exercise that right.

There are two "parts" to a right. They are 1) having a right, and 2) exercising a right. Obviously, having a right is not exactly the same as how you exercise that right. They are related, however, in that if you have a right, the State, custom, or tradition may not define the exercise of the right in any way that effectively negates the fact that you have the right.

For example, assume you have the right to own private property. The right to own is, by the way, a natural right, and one without which you are not considered a "human person," - "person" signifying "that which has rights." That is all very well, but if you do not also have the right of access to an effective means of becoming an owner (savings, credit, inheritance, etc.), then your right to own is effectively negated, that is, it is only nominal and doesn't really mean anything.

There are two kinds of rights. There are "natural rights," that is, rights that belong to each and every human being by nature and automatically make each human being a human person. Denying any of the natural rights, such as life, liberty, or property, means that you are denying the essential (natural) humanity of the individual or group of which you are denying the right or rights. "Human being" is an individual concept, while "human person" is a social concept. We are both beings and persons, and we must balance the demands of both within the social order.

The second kind of right is (as we might expect) the "secondary" or "derived" right. These are rights that, while they might not be considered natural rights, make the natural rights effective. For example, the primary or natural right to life means that you have

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