A Sorry Challenge. "Taking Responsibility for the Past: Reparation and Historical Justice" by Janna Thompson. [review]

Abstract

This book gives us new ways of thinking about questions regarding an apology for historical wrongs sommitted against Indigenous Australians. In a tight and coherent argument, philosopher Janna Thompson develops a moral (as opposed to a legal) theory of reparative justice that helps us understand why we might have obligations to remedy the wrongs of our predecessors. Thompson draws on a number of examples, including white Australia’s obligations towards members of the Stolen Generations, indigenous claims to land in Australia and elsewhere, and claims for compensation for victims of slavery and the Holocaust. Her argument, in a nutshell, is that we owe it to each other to remedy historical injustices because only then can we expect that our own experience of injustice will be remedied by future generations.