Grave Injustice: Disrespect Toward the Dead, Transgenerational Publicity, and Reparations

Spitting on graves, breaking deathbed promises, slandering the dead, not honoring wills—disrespecting the dead may provoke powerful responses. But beyond such specific individualized acts, I argue we should think more broadly about disrespect toward the dead. Central to my argument is the idea of a “framework of justice,” which is a particular conception of justice officially adopted for a social context (or set of social contexts).1 The adequacy of a framework may be assessed in part by its effects in the world, including incentive effects and expressive dimensions, like signaling (dis)respect and granting status. I argue a political society should avoid displaying disrespect toward the dead in five ways corresponding to five parameters for acceptable frameworks of justice. I argue a political society's legitimacy depends on adopting a framework of justice that grants status to dead victims of grave historical injustices connected to that society. This has important implications for reparations and the appropriate lens through which to view the demands and status of Indigenous peoples, particularly in the United States and Canadian contexts. My approach begins by considering how human beings who are dead today should have been treated by their own contemporaries when they were alive.2 Imagine that the framework of justice we adopt today (or favor adopting today) had been adopted in that past context: how would it have assessed the treatment of those we today view (or should view) as victims of grave historical injustices? Would it have counted as wrong what was done to the dead victims (who were alive then, but dead now)? The goal should be coherence in the framework of justice across past and present contexts (at least if the framework purports to covers both contexts).3 Further, would it have adequately discouraged injustice by the dead perpetrators (who were alive then, but dead now)? For example, would the framework have had adequate duties of reparation following injustice or would it have rewarded injustice? This gives us the first two parameters: (1) framework of justice should be to as wrong what was done to dead victims (who were alive but dead The framework of had it been adopted in a past should not have rewarded injustice and should have for dead perpetrators alive but to may frameworks of justice are what is the in how a framework of justice would have the of dead perpetrators in contexts of historical the be a adequacy is to be by how it and we the how we of about displaying disrespect toward the and my approach more I two of about justice and the dead by and the for but the have to to (or a that the of the dead that the for the be dead have a status. 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