As used here, compensation means providing money or items of economic value to a person or group that has suffered an injury caused by another. Compensation is different from restitution, meaning the return of specific property to a previous owner, and reparations, usually applied to compensation a defeated country pays to the victors for damages or losses suffered during war.

Compensation has long been a familiar principle in law, business, and everyday life in many societies. Many legal systems provide procedures (e.g., lawsuits in U.S. courts) for determining an amount of compensation that the law regards as equivalent to certain types of injuries. Such compensation is not necessarily intended to punish the party causing the injury, but instead to try to relieve the injury; paying it generally relieves the offending party of further financial obligations.

Various justifications are offered for...