The Progression of the Dignity Taking and Dignity Restoration Framework

There are certain times when state or non-state actors deprive an individual or community of their homes or other property. There are also other more damaging occasions when the dispossession involved not only a taking of property but also of dignity because the property deprivation occurred alongside acts of dehumanization (the failure to recognize an individual or group’s humanity) or infantilization (the restriction of an individual or group’s autonomy based on the failure to recognize and respect their full capacity to reason). This is called a dignity taking, which occurs when a state directly or indirectly destroys or confiscates property rights from owners or occupiers and the intentional or unintentional outcome is dehumanization or infantilization. When this larger harm called a dignity taking has occurred, mere reparations are not enough. Dignity restoration is required. This is a remedy that seeks to provide compensation for the deprivation of property while also restoring dignity by placing the dispossessed individuals or communities in the driver’s seat and giving them a significant degree of autonomy in deciding how they are made whole.<br><br>Atuahene developed the dignity takings/dignity restoration framework through the empirical exploration of a contemporary crisis of racial inequality and subordination: The case of land dispossession and restitution in South Africa. Since then, over 30 scholars have applied these socio-legal concepts to an array of case studies in various time periods and geographic locations, providing a transnational, historicized approach to understanding involuntary property loss and its material and non-material consequences. More specifically, scholars in the fields of law, political science, sociology, history, and anthropology have contributed to this important conversation about inequality and dignity. These scholars have covered diverse cases, from an empirical investigation of coverture in early America, the Tulsa Race Riots, the Chicago Torture Ordinance, and the closure of gay bathhouses in New York to the expropriation that occurred during Communism in Poland, the Civil War in Colombia, and the Holocaust in Europe. This Article is the first to survey the substantial empirical work done on the dignity takings/dignity restoration framework, which has spurred scholars to move beyond disciplinary silos and develop a robust discussion among both domestic and international scholars about the material and immaterial consequences of property loss.<br>