This paper deals with the question of translation rights. The status of translations under copyright law is based on a theoretical framework that is at the very least anachronistic in terms of a contemporary Translation Studies perspective, to which literary criticism, philosophy and post-colonial studies have all contributed. In order to explain the legal system's epistemological delay in defining translation, this paper provides a brief account of the development of translation rights within the framework of international copyright law. It recalls, among other, the double heritage of literary criticism and philosophy in order to finally suggest an explanation, in an ethical sense, of translation rights as a claim for developing countries to translate the indebted original (the West).