Legal systems are often presented as sets of rights, and legal norms operate to
ensure these rights. In this paper, I try to clarify the concept of right according to
the different shades in which, as a matter of fact, the idea of a right is interpreted.
As a matter of fact, if law is seen from the point of view of the legislator, the will
to make a certain action effectively accessible by the bearer of the corresponding
right admits different degrees or levels of intensity, and each of those levels can
be represented by a different configuration of duties or competences.
The weakest of those levels is the negative permission; the strongest one,
the obligation to help any person willing to exercise the guaranteed right. The
analysis of the levels exposed above may be a useful tool to understand some difficulties
of the legal discourse when compared to the legal practice.