Abstract The right to security is enshrined in international human rights treaties and constitutions. All people share the ambition to live free from fear of attack, loss of life, arbitrary arrest, detention, or coercive interrogation. This chapter explores the theoretical arguments that support the recognition of that ambition as a right worthy of legal and moral protection. It first identifies competing conceptions of security in the theories of Hobbes and Locke. It then discusses the philosophical justifications for the right to security in the work of Blackstone, Shue, Fredman, Powell, and Ramsay. Finally, it exposes the problems associated with broad conceptions of security as a meta-right, and argues in favour of a specific and narrow conception of the right.