Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

6-18-2003

SSRN Discipline

Legal Scholarship Network; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Law School Research Papers - Public Law & Legal Theory; Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence & Legal Philosophy eJournals

Abstract

Now that reparations talk is being taken seriously it is time to address reparations plans more fully After discussing why reparations talk has become popular the paper turns to conceptual problems associated with claims for reparations for slavery whether courts are the appropriate place to look and whether American law is even equipped to deal with such claims It addresses three problems in particular the use of unjust enrichment analogies in reparations talk the constitutionality of racebased remedies such as reparations and the types of remedies for harms where the most directly affected people are no longer alive A final section places reparations talk into the context of the cultural war over redistribution of property on the basis of race

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