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. An agent answers for the effects their actions cause, for harm they produce without consent, and for property a Contract has transferred to another but which they still hold. Responsibilities attach to individuals through causation, 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; owes delivery of what is no longer theirs. Duties imposed by force without consent are not responsibilities but coercion. Collective responsibilities without individual causation are invalid. 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.