The 12th Annual Minerva Lecture on Human Rights
The past has always been a problem – but not a legal problem. All of that has changed however. Though once unthinkable, claims for legal redress of historic wrongs are now increasingly common. From Holocaust-related litigation to the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal to redress for victims of institutional abuse to restitution of wrongly taken property, the past has come to be among the vexing problems faced by contemporary courts. For the legal system, which long avoided dealing with the past, redressing historic wrongs is unfamiliar and difficult terrain. Yet, legal claims are critical to this new problem of the past – they demand judicial attention and force the settlements that among other things create truth commissions, prompt apologies, and demand restitution. This lecture will explore the sometimes surprising success of what would once have been considered far-fetched claims and ask what we might learn about how best to respond to the problem of the past.
האירוע יתחיל בשעה 17:45