The first section of the article examines whether social and legal relations between persons depend on common features or on differences between cultures. The second section looks at dominant legal and social institutions that arise in response to similarities and differences in the human condition. The third section discusses the way in which categorical rules that often emerge in private law represent a proper utilitarian response when enforcement costs temper the demand for justice in individual cases. The fourth section considers the congruence between general utilitarian principles and the state's power to take private property for public use. The author concludes that the connection between utilitarian concerns and natural rights theory is relatively strong. He bases this conclusion on an analysis of benevolence toward strangers, altruism within the family, individual autonomy, first possession of property, customs, external harms, and forced exchanges. 67 footnotes