A Radical Vision of Personal Rights

In the latter half of the twentieth century, Americans' devotion to individualism has dominated the cultural landscape. Narcissistic preoccupations and quests for identity have stressed the individual's psychological life, often at the expense of social structures and political ideals. Selfknowledge and self-awareness have sold more books than sex has. The youth culture has insisted on doing your own thing and finding yourself. Self-realization has replaced religion. In philosophy, a similar resurgence of interest in individualism has developed around the importance of autonomy; in law, around an individual right of privacy. The result has been a turning away from traditional, widely accepted social values, such as the sanctity of the family and the stability of the community. In traditional society, the individual often had to sublimate personal wishes or interests to the broader demands of the group. Insistence on individualism often made one an outsider. The true individual was, then, the exception. This new vision proposes that we are or can be (and should be) a nation of fully realized individuals, rationally pursuing our individual, exciting destinies. In Sex, Drugs, Death and the Law, David A. J. Richards, a professor at New York University School of Law, advocates personal autonomy as a supreme value. Richards's vision of radical autonomyone is tempted to say autonomy unchained and unrestrained-is rooted in nonutilitarian theories of rights, the constitutional right of privacy, and the unwritten constitution. His book brings together and

Business · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law, Rights, and Freedoms · Legal Systems and Judicial Processes