<p>The article traces the distinctive genesis and development of law and rights in the work of Paul Ricœur. The distinctiveness of the Ricœurian approach rests upon a process of hermeneutical enquiry which insists upon the connection of law and rights with ethics and morality. The manner in which this relationship is determined renders Ricœur’s analysis equally distinctive as it is elaborated beyond the confines of legal positivism and the modern natural law tradition. Ricœur’s conceptualisation situates law and rights within the complex intersection of morality, law and politics. The article analyses the stages of Ricœur’s hermeneutical inquiry commencing from his critical engagement Greimasian semiotics of narrative which results in a textual hermeneutics. This textual hermeneutics is the preparatory stage for renewed reflection upon narrative in the sixth study of <i>Oneself as Another</i> in which the relationship between narrative and ethics is emphasised. The interconnection between narrative and ethics facilitates the transition to the 'petite éthique' of <i>Oneself as Another</i> where, in studies seven to nine, a moral judgment is situation is elaborated. The conclusion of the 'petite éthique' indicates, through the brief discussion of rights and imputation, the relationship to the domain of law and rights. These indications prefigure the later concentrated analysis of law and rights in which Ricœur elaborates the position of law and rights in their complex interconnection with the ethico-moral background of the 'petite éthique' and politics.</p>