# Jan Narveson on Theories of Rights and Moral Contracts **URL:** **By** Jan Narveson **Published:** June 21, 2000 --- Narveson discusses his contractarian justification of liberty. Jan Narveson is a professor of philosophy emeritus at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and the author of several books including _The Libertarian Idea_ (1988). Here he speaks at the International Society of Individual Liberty’s World Libertarian Conference in 2000 about positive and negative rights and a contractarian justification for the morality of liberty. For an ongoing critique of Narveson’s theories in [_The Libertarian Idea_](http://www.libertarianism.org/publications/books/libertarian-idea) , check out Miles Pope and Julian Sanchez’s [series](https://www.libertarianism.org/blog/libertarian-idea-setting-scene) [of](https://www.libertarianism.org/blog/morality-its-discontents) [posts](https://www.libertarianism.org/blog/is-contractarianism-serious-or-just-clever) on the Free Thoughts blog.