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Compensation and the Social Structure of Misfortune

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Donald Black
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Abstract

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This essay identifies social conditions associated with the compensatory style of conflict management, addresses variable aspects of compensation itself, and examines the modern trend toward a greater degree of compensatory liability of organizations for the misfortunes of individuals. Several propositions are discussed: Compensation is a direct function of groups and a curvilinear function of relational distance, and is greater in upward and group-directed cases than in downward and individual-directed cases. In addition, liability varies directly with social distance and is greater in group-directed than in individual-directed cases. The modern trend toward greater organizational liability appears to be a devolution toward a pattern of collective dependency characteristic of earlier societies before the decline of kinship.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , 1987 , pp. 563 - 584
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 The Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

This paper was prepared for the symposium “Issues in Compensatory Justice,” held at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, on January 27, 1986. The symposium was organized and chaired by Ravindra S. Khare and sponsored by the Committee on the Comparative Study of Individual and Society of the University's Center for Advanced Studies.

This article draws upon a project supported by the National Science Foundation Program in Law and Social Science. The following people commented on earlier drafts: M. P. Baumgartner, Mark Cooney, Robert C. Ellickson, David M. Engel, John Griffiths, Allan V. Horwitz, John Jarvis, Robert L. Kidder, Saul X. Levmore, Albert J. Reiss, Jr., Roberta Senechal, James Tucker, and Charles O. Wood.

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