ABSTRACT
Many people believe that compensation is owed for the effects of certain wrongs that took place more than a generation ago—the slave trade, for example, and the appropriation of aboriginal lands. This chapter offers a technical solution to a technical problem. It also explains how can make sense of the idea that someone can be owed compensation for the effects of a wrong in whose absence he would never have existed. Many people believe that compensation is owed for the effects of certain wrongs that took place more than a generation ago—the slave trade, for example, and the appropriation of aboriginal lands. This is a fundamental challenge to the ideal of transgenerational compensatory justice. However, although the challenge has been discussed by various philosophers it has received comparatively little attention.
