Justice in Time: Responding to Historical Injustice

Source: (2004) Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft.

A significant issue much debated in recent decades in academia, and in legal and political spheres, is the question of intergenerational justice, or justice over time. That is, in broad terms, what can or must individuals, groups, and nations in the present do, if anything, to deal with past injustices? Or, turned forward, how will future individuals, groups, and nations deal with injustices that they either commit or suffer in their past? Should a subsequent generation be held accountable for wrongs committed by an earlier generation? Should a subsequent generation be compensated or redressed in some way for wrongs suffered by an earlier generation? If accountability or reparation are deemed appropriate or even obligatory, how would either one be effected, especially effected in a satisfactory way? To what extent and in what ways, if any, does culpability or injury accrue to collective entities such as racial or ethnic groups, a gender, or a nation? This book consists of a number of essays addressing these and other key issues relating to intergenerational justice. The book is edited by Lukas H. Meyer, who teaches political theory and philosophy in the Institute for Intercultural and International Studies at the University of Bremen in Germany. Meyer also contributes a lengthy introduction and a chapter to the book. The essays or chapters are organized into two basic categories: the first part of the book deals with philosophical perspectives on intergenerational justice; the second part looks at institutional responses to historical injustice. Also, at the back of the book is a list of contributors to this volume with brief biographical information about each. Experts in philosophy, law, and social and political sciences for the most part, they come from a number of countries around the world.