Reparations and Redress for Historical Injustice

This Element introduces various justifications for reparations and redress for historical injustice discussed in political theory and philosophy. It examines multiple real-world cases to illustrate and test theories. It is accessible to students and scholars unfamiliar with the field, while providing new arguments for experts in the field, and organizing the debate around reparations in new ways. The Element is divided into four main sections. The first three sections examine different temporal orientations of justice: backward-looking, forward-looking, and structural injustice over time. The fourth section examines Indigenous perspectives and settler colonial theory, which complicate and problematize the temporal orientations and arguments from the other sections. The discussion in this Element is organized around two recurring theses. First, approaches relying on primarily forward-looking justifications could be made more plausible and compelling by incorporating backward-looking elements (and vice versa). Second, past injustice can change what should (publicly) count as justice.