Do Dirty-Handed Public Officials Owe Reparations?

Abstract In the problem of dirty hands, agents must choose between two incompatible moral demands, thereby inevitably violating an important moral value. While dirty-hands cases can arise in all areas of life, it has been argued that they are particularly pressing in the realm of politics. To illustrate the issue at hand, the paper introduces the real-life case study of the cover up of the Claudy Bombing in Northern Ireland. With the help of this example, the aim of the paper is to suggest a shift in the literature to turn our focus to what is owed to the victims of dirty hands. In particular, it defends the claim that public officials owe reparations to those that have been negatively affected by their dirty-handed decisions. To support this, the paper addresses two worries that opponents of reparations in this context might have, discusses a number of responses, and finds that at least some of them are credible ways of answering these worries. The paper concludes by outlining some key considerations when envisioning what reparations for dirty hands could look like.