Dignity Takings and Dignity REstoration
Creating a New Theoretical Framework for Understanding Involuntary Property Loss and the Remedies Required By Bernadette Atuahene
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nvoluntary property loss is ubiquitous. During conquest and colonialism European powers robbed native peoples of their lands; wars and civil conflicts have undermined and rearranged ownership rights; communist regimes have upended existing ownership rights in attempts to usher in a more egalitarian property distribution; and most constitutional democracies sanction the forced taking of property so long as it is for a public purpose. In some of these examples, state or non-state actors have taken property from an individual or a group and material compensation is an appropriate remedy. In other instances, however, the property confiscation resulted in the dehumanization or infantilization of the dispossessed, and so providing material compensation is not enough because they lost more than their property—they were also deprived of their dignity.
A summary of Dignity Takings and Dignity Restoration: Creating a New Theoretical Framework for Understanding Involuntary Property Loss and the Remedies Required, L & Soc. Inquiry (forthcoming 2016).
Fall 2016 [ 3 ]