Does recognition of the basic human right to subsistence imply that the needy are morally permitted to take and use other people’s property to get out of their plight? Should we respect the exercise of this right of necessity in a variety of scenarios – from street pickpocketing and petty theft to illegal squatting and encamping? In this concise and accessible book, Alejandra Mancilla addresses these complex and controversial moral questions. The book presents a historical account of the concept of the right of necessity—from the medieval writings of Christian canonists and theologians to seventeenth century natural law theory. The author then goes on to ground this right in a minimal conception of basic human rights, and proposes some necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for its exercise. She confronts the main objections that may be posed against this principle and ultimately concludes that the exercise of this right should be considered as a trigger to secure a minimum threshold of welfare provisions for everyone, everywhere.

"A valuable and thought-provoking book." - Ethics: An International Journal of Social, Political, and Legal Philosophy

"This text aims to prove the existence of one basic right – a right of necessity – derivable both from our understanding of natural rights and from prevailing theories of property rights. The right has the direct implications of permitting the taking and using of others’ property for survival. And it can be treated as an anchoring-point for cosmopolitan political theory and theories of global justice. The argument is persuasive ad the text itself is a model of methodological and argumentative economy. The book will be o interest to those working on human rights, cosmopolitanism, global justice and political theory." - Ethical Perspectives, Issue 24, September 2017

"[...] an engaging book which brings a very worthwhile idea with real world implications to a debate of utmost urgency. […] The book delivers a very clearly argued case for a right that has been neglected for too long, a right that should be high on the agenda for all moral cosmopolitans. Highly recommended." - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews