In defence of honour? A case for moral rights from relational autonomy

Moral rights constrain the economic element of property rights in works of art by giving authors certain inalienable rights of control over their creations. Such moral rights have often been defended by appeal to the value of the relation between the author and their work, with arguments emphasising that moral rights serve to protect the personality of the author. This chapter argues that personality-based approaches provide a more limited justification for moral rights than they have typically been taken to yield. It suggests an alternative defence of moral rights, by drawing on insights from theories which emphasise the relational dimensions of autonomy.