Backward-Looking Reparations Versus Forward-Looking Buyouts: Distributive Justice Across Time in International Law

Reparations aim to rectify historical harms by compensating victims, or their descendants. Even when such harms have a transnational aspect, as with the case for climate change reparations, they often stem from entrenched domestic political stalemates. In a common pattern, vested interest groups oppose reforms that, although supported by majorities and beneficial to society as a whole, threaten their own material interest. Such groups hold a mobilization advantage that allows them to effectively obstruct change. Left unresolved, these domestic stalemates can compound harm over time in a way that eventually forms the basis of demands for reparations.