Rectifying International Injustice

Rectifying International Injustice examines the theory behind claims for reparations and compensation as a result of historic international injustice. Such political demands have gained widespread prominence in recent years, in relation to claims that various Western states should pay compensation to peoples in the developing world in response to the wrongs of the colonial period in general, and the slave trade in particular. The idea that present day generations may have obligations to others as a result of past wrongdoing is not a new one, but this has generally been examined within the context of a bounded political community, such as a nation-state. Rectifying International Injustice is the first book to focus specifically on international injustice. It argues that the existing literature on the subject has failed to recognize that international wrongdoing requires a dedicated approach, and so has seriously underestimated the extent to which we may owe rectificatory duties to those in other states.