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Reparations And Unjust Enrichment, Emily Sherwin
Reparations And Unjust Enrichment, Emily Sherwin
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Despite an initial appearance of superior doctrinal fit, restitution is not an appropriate vehicle for reparations claims based on slavery and similar large-scale historical injustices. The justifying principle behind restitution—prevention of unjust enrichment—lacks the moral force necessary to resolve a controversial public dispute about moral rights and obligations among segments of society. At its core, a claim to restitution is an attempt to right a wrong not by alleviating the adverse consequences to oneself, but by diminishing the position of others. In other words, the notion of unjust enrichment is a comparative idea that draws on resentment and the desire …
Introduction, Hanoch Dagan, Keith N. Hylton, Anthony J. Sebok
Introduction, Hanoch Dagan, Keith N. Hylton, Anthony J. Sebok
Faculty Articles
No abstract provided.
Two Concepts Of Injustice In Restitution For Slavery, Anthony J. Sebok
Two Concepts Of Injustice In Restitution For Slavery, Anthony J. Sebok
Faculty Articles
This article, which will appear in a symposium issued of the Boston University Law Review titled "The Jurisprudence of Slavery Reparations," criticizes attempts to secure legal redress for slavery through lawsuits based on unjust enrichment. The article has three parts. First, it compares the recent efforts to litigate the wrongs of caused by American slavery to other recent "mass restitution" lawsuits, namely the states' unjust enrichment suits against the tobacco industry and the suits against banks and corporations for unjust enrichment arising out of the Holocaust. Second, the article questions the fit between the structure of restitution and the interests …
Public Tort Litigation: Public Benefit Or Public Nuisance?, Richard C. Ausness
Public Tort Litigation: Public Benefit Or Public Nuisance?, Richard C. Ausness
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
One of the latest developments in products liability law is "public tort" litigation. Public tort or government-sponsored lawsuits are actions by federal, state, or local government entities to recover the cost of public services provided to persons who have been injured as the result of a defendant's alleged misconduct. The best known example is the tobacco litigation of the mid-1990s in which more than forty states brought suit against the leading tobacco companies to recoup the cost of providing health care services to indigent smokers. Eventually, the tobacco companies agreed to pay the states more than $200 billion and also …