Freedom from Past Injustices: A Critical Evaluation of Claims for Inter-Generational Reparations
Should contemporary citizens provide material redress to right past
wrongs? There is a widespread belief that contemporary citizens
should take responsibility for rectifying past wrongs. Nahshon
Perez challenges this view, questioning attempts to aggregate dead
wrongdoers with living people, and examining ideas of
intergenerational collective responsibility with great suspicion.
He distinguishes sharply between those who are indeed unjustly
enriched by past wrongs, and those who are not.Looking at issues
such as the distinction between compensation and restitution,
counterfactuals and the non-identity problem, Perez concludes that
individuals have the right to a clean slate, and that almost all of
the pro-intergenerational redress arguments are unconvincing. Key
Features *Unique in claiming past wrongs should not be rectified
*Analyses pro-intergenerational material redress arguments *Case
studies include court cases from Australia, Northern Cyprus, the
United States and Austria, and political and social movements from
the US, Palestine and Arab countries
