Abstract: Strictly speaking,"right" is a modern concept,and the word "right" is the product of industrialization.In other words,"right" is the point of departure of almost all the institutional arrangement of modern society.Although signs of right had appeared in ancient Rome and the Medieval period,and in the documents of these times wordings similar to "right" have been identified,the society then was operated within a system of identity,and "right" simply referred to certain privilege.Even the property right was subordinated to the paternal property privilege.The authors claim that right had arisen with the collapse of the institution of identity.In the social transition process from "identity" to "contract",privilege gradually lost ground and right gradually replaced it.The rise of right as a concept was rooted in the demand of industrialization and brought with it important political consequences.Examining the history of how this concept had emerged is aimed at more profound understanding of the historical nature of these political consequences.

Key words: right, the Roman law, the natural law

摘要： 严格说来,"权利"一词是在人类走向工业社会的进程中产生的,是一个现代性概念,或者说,近代社会的几乎全部制度安排都是在权利的基础上进行的。虽然在古代罗马和中世纪都曾出现过权利萌芽的迹象,人们也在这些时期的文献中发现了类似于权利的用词,但是,当时的社会是建基于身份制度之上的,所谓权利其实只是某种特权,即便是财产权也是依附于"家父权"的财产特权。权利是随着身份制度的瓦解而诞生的。在从"身份"走向"契约"的社会转型中,特权失去了存在的现实基础,并因而逐渐为权利所取代。权利观念的发生,既根源于工业化的要求又带来了一系列重要的政治后果,我们梳理权利观念的发生史,就是为了更好地理解这些政治后果的历史性。

关键词: 权利, 罗马法, 自然法