Legal rights exert real effects despite being fictitious entities

Evidence

Thus, although a right does not actually exist as an entity, although its existence is merely feigned in the imagination, it nevertheless has real effects. — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 71

Categorization

• DEFINE: Bentham’s distinction between fictitious entities (like legal rights) and imaginary non-entities (like ghosts) — both can have real effects.
• SEED: An essay angle: the fictional ontology of law — how rights, corporations, and money all work precisely because we all pretend they exist.
• XREF: connects to: The right to be sued gives one power to make credible promises — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 113; Every fictitious entity must be discussed as if it were real — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 385; Abstract legal recognition of rights fails to overturn women’s concrete economic inferiority — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 57 (+2 more)

Related

• Every fictitious entity must be discussed as if it were real (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• The right to be sued gives one power to make credible promises #exemplifies (0.75) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 113