In-Person | Why Reparations?

This event was originally scheduled for 21 February 2023

Please note that the time allocated for this colloquia will be devoted to discussion of the paper.

Speaker: Prof. Dr Jennifer Page (University of Zurich)

About the Paper

In recent philosophical scholarship on historical injustice and reparations, a notable development has been “the structural turn.” How fundamentally does conceiving of the ground of reparations as structural—e.g., in terms of present anti-Black institutional racism and not just slavery as a discrete event that happened in the past—necessitate a change in our underlying theories of reparative justice? Focusing on the U.S., I lay out a typology of harms that give rise to reparations claims. One type of harm that I identify, diachronic group harms, is inherently structural, and focuses our attention on a different set of issues than those with which past philosophical authors writing about reparations were concerned. However, across all types of harms, the underlying moral rationale for reparations is the same. The answer to the question “Why reparations?” to do with the inherent value of accountability for serious wrongdoing.

About the Institute

The Institute brings together political and legal theorists from Law, Political Science and Philosophy and organises regular colloquia in terms 2 and 3. Read more about the Institute's work. 

If you would like to be added to the ILPP mailing list please contact us at laws-events@ucl.ac.uk.

Book your place

Image credit: Koshu Kunii from Unsplash