According to this theory, rights are the product of history.These are found in the ancient customs, traditions and practices. for generations together these rights were recognized by the people in the form of customs and traditions. Because of unbroken customs for generations, people attached some sanctity to the rights.
Criticism:
There is some element of truth in this theory, but difficult to believe that all rights enjoyed by people in a state are true to customs and traditions.
Human society is dynamic and the custom change from time to time and from place to place. Rights correspond the different stages in the evolution of human society.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Rights enjoyed people in a capitalist society, for example, are different from the enjoyed by people in a feudal society. There can be no unanimity opinion as to what historical rights are.
Laski says, “We do not mean by rights the grant of some his conditions possessed in the childhood of the race, but lost in the pr of time.
Few theories have done greater harm to philosophy, or m violence to facts, than the notion that they represent the recovery of a inheritance. There is no golden age to which we may seek to return.”