作者简介：
Brian Tierney (born May 7, 1922) is a historian and a medievalist. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He was a member of the faculty of the Catholic University of America for eight years until becoming professor of medieval history at Cornell University in 1959, becoming the Goldwin Smith Professor of Medieval History in 1969 and the first Bowmar Professor of Humanistic Studies in 1977.
目录：
Origins. Villey, Ockham and the origin of individual rights ; Origins of natural rights language : texts and contexts, 1150-1250 ; Rights and duties : a quaestio of Henry of Ghent -- Ockham and the Franciscans. The beginning of the dispute ; Languages of rights ; Property, natural right, and the state of nature ; William of Ockham : rights and some problems of political thought -- From Gerson to Grotius. Gerson, conciliarism, corporatism, and individualism ; Almain, Mair, Summenhart ; Aristotle and the American Indians ; Rights, community, and sovereignty ; Grotius : from medieval to modern.