Responsibilities

The duties that follow logically from agency, self-ownership, and causation -- the mirror image of Rights. Where rights name boundaries others may not cross without consent, responsibilities name what an agent must answer for: effects their actions cause, harm they produce without consent, and terms they voluntarily agreed to keep. Responsibilities attach to individuals through causation and agreement, not through group membership, status, or authority's claim of need. An agent is responsible for their body's actions; owes restitution for harm done; bears the consequences of contracts freely made. Duties imposed by force without consent are not responsibilities but coercion. Collective responsibilities without individual causation are invalid (see Collective Responsibility). Taking responsibility for one's actions is the declaration-side counterpart to claiming rights: both presuppose the same agent, the same logic, and the same Golden Rule.