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TIP: Justice & Reparations

Brief description of course content, format and readings:

The course examines an issue of growing social, legal, and political importance in many countries in the past decade: reparations to individuals and groups who have suffered systemic mistreatment, political violence, or unjust deprivation of rights. Reparations would seem, if morally justified, to fall under the heading of justice, in the form of obligations to make restitution, give compensation, or otherwise restore or make up for what was unjustly suffered or lost. Yet there is surprisingly little treatment of the theoretical foundations of reparations in philosophical literature. We will examine some classic and mostly contemporary philosophical discussions of the nature of compensation, reparation, the impact of time and history, and the meaning and role of apologies. We will examine whether reparations can be seen as morally required, whether reparations are impossible or incoherent when wrongs stretch back far into the past, and whether reparations can be seen as a matter of justice, or have other or additional moral dimensions.

The course will proceed as a seminar, with participants having responsibility for brief presentations of assigned readings or other related material.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Exams: None

Papers: Two seminar presentations and one final essay (10-15pages) on an approved topic.

Grading system: Plus/minus A through E.

Required books:

Judith Shklar, Faces of Injustice (Yale University Press) Rodney Roberts, ed. Injustice and Rectification (Peter Lang) Janna Thompson, Taking Responsibility for the Past: Reparation and Historical Injustice (Polity)

+Additional articles on justice and compensation, the nature of reparation and obligations of reparation, the significance of lapsed time and history, the political and symbolic dimensions of reparation, available through JSTOR or ERes.

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