Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

9-6-2006

SSRN Discipline

Economics Research Network; Legal Scholarship Network; Public Choice & Political Economy eJournals; Law & Society eJournals; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Law School Research Papers - Public Law & Legal Theory; Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence & Legal Philosophy eJournals; ERN Subject Matter eJournals; Labor eJournals

Abstract

Eric Posners and Adrian Vermeules essay Reparations for Slavery and Other Historic Injustices seeks a framework for defining reparations and evaluating reparations claims It explores a limited set of past reparations as well as the connections between those asked to pay reparations and past wrongdoers and the connections between those receiving reparations and those injured in the past Posner and Vermeule use that framework to evaluate the morality of reparations and the legal problems that arise in implementing reparations proposals This Essay takes up the PosnerVermeule analysis at several points It challenges their limited definition of reparations and their limited catalog of reparations in American history In contrast to Posner and Vermeule who date the origin of reparations action in the United States to 1946 this Essay presents a series of legislative reparations throughout American history Using that historical evidence and a legislative model of reparations the Essay proposes a relaxation of the relationship between wrongdoer and payer and injured and recipient Then it suggests several factors for a legislature to consider in designing reparations for historical injustice This Essay thereby proposes an alternative framework for evaluating the morality and utility of reparations

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