About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 Libertarian Papers 1 (2009)

handle is hein.journals/libpa1 and id is 1 raw text is: VOL. 1, ARi. No. 1 (2009) PRESENT PAYMENTS, PAST WRONGS: CORRECTING LOOSE TALK ABOUT NoZICK AND RECTIFICATION JAN NARVESON* The Problem Stated AcCORDING 1O NOZICK (and Locke and innumerable others), what has come to be termed distributive justice is a matter of goods going to those who made or found them, or to those who get them from others by agreement, e.g. by buying or selling them. No other fundamental ways of arriving at ownership of anything are morally legitimate-since, by definition, the only other ways there are would involve compelling some to give goods to others, contrar to the general libertarian principle that Nozick (and many others, including the present writer) suppose to be the most fundamental general principle of morals. But of course things sometimes go wrong, and people get things by theft, assassination, fraud, and so forth. When this happens, what should be done about it? Nozick calls upon a third category, rectification. The simplest way of putting this idea is that if A unjustly acquires x from B, then A may (if necessary) be compelled to restore x to B. The idea can be made more precise: to the extent that A has illegitimately worsened the situation of B, rectification is accomplished if A brings it about that B is no worse off, given the actions done with a view to rectification, than B would have been had the injustice not occurred in the first place. This last is a tall order, and not easily accomplished in a wide variety of cases. Indeed, in conspicuously important cases, it is, in the most direct way, impossible, for in those cases, B is dead and nothing whatever can be done to make B in University of Waterloo. Email: p aiw ',. The present article is an expanded and revised version a paper presented at the Austrian Scholars Conference, Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, Alabama, March 21, 2005, under the title Present Pa)ments, Past Wrongs: Correcting Impressions from Nozick on Restitution. CITE TIHIS ARTICLE \S: Jan Narveson, Present Payments, Past Wrongs: Correcting Loose Talk about Nozick and Rectification, Libertarian Papers 1, 1 (2009). ONLINE AT: NA x~v.hlxr tArnu z'trg. TIiis ARTICLE IS subject to a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (crea1ixecrtnnoa orgilicen e LIBER TARIAN PAPERS

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most