  Dworkin (1973, 1975, 1981, 1986), in one formulation of his theory of rights, was a proponent of the first view. According to that, rights enjoy a categorial priority in weight over any other consideration which is not itself right-based.  Clearly, it is true of many legal systems that constitutional rights, or some of them, should outweigh any other consideration which is not itself derived from a constitutional right. But that seems to be primarily because of the constitutional status of the right. Both in law and in morality many rights are of a rather trivial nature. In morality such rights can, arguably, sometimes be justifiably outweighed even by considerations of personal convenience (cf. Raz 1978).  Similarly in law it seems that many prima facie rights can be defeated by what the court regards as considerations of the general interest. Dworkin’s (1977) response to the latter type of criticism was to argue that, on closer inspection, the consideration opposing the right can be seen as itself an instantiation of another general right. But this depends on the contentious claim that the only considerations that courts can justifiably rely upon are pre-existing rights. The objection has also been raised that, as a general theory of the nature of rights, it risks being self-defeating, since any consideration whatsoever can then be argued to be right-based, which leaves rights with no special role in practical reasoning. (For discussion of Dworkin’s theory, including his other formulations, see Yowell 2007.)