Who? Whom? Reparations and the Problem of Agency.

The article discusses the pursuit of justice by making reparation for past wrongs and particularly for wrongs done more than a generation ago, is not morally justifiable except in some special cases. For paying of reparations to be defensible, it must be possible to identify two kinds of agent, which is the victim of injustice, to whom reparation is owed and the perpetrator or the beneficiary of injustice who can be held accountable for the wrong or liable for the cost of restitution. According to the author, if there is no plausible justification for holding one part of society responsible for compensating another for injustices committed in the past, there is no warrant for calling upon the state to take any particular action.