I intend to make two, rather contentious, claims and end on a hopeful note. First, I establish that (1) Kant’s innate right can support subsistence rights, but that (2) they remain problematic due to the imperfect nature of their correlative duties. Subsequently, I examine whether (3) the third Ulpian duty commanding us to establish a condition in which all rights (“what belongs to each”) can be secured, could provide a solution. Can it be understood to involve a duty to, among other things, set up a scheme (like a welfare state), in which particular subsistence-right-holders are paired with specific duty-bearers, rendering the duties perfect and therefore the rights genuine?
