Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Hard

PT141 S1 P4 Q23 Explanation

Rectification of Past Property Injustice

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

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Passage

Passage

There are two principles that are fundamental to a theory of justice regarding property. The principle of justice in acquisition specifies the conditions under which someone can legitimately come to own something that was previously not owned by anyone. The principle of justice in of property from one person to another is justified.

Given such principles, if the world were wholly just, the following definition would exhaustively cover the regarding property:

1. A person who acquires property in accordance with the principle of justice in acquisition that property.

2. A person who acquires property in accordance with the principle of justice in transfer, from someone else who is entitled entitled to the property.

3. No one is entitled to any property except by (repeated) applications and 2.

However, not all actual situations are generated in accordance with the principles of justice in acquisition and justice in transfer. Some people steal from others or defraud them, for example. The existence of past injustice raises the issue of the rectification of injustice. If past injustice has shaped present ownership in various should have resulted. Actual ownership of property must then be brought into conformity with this description.

Passage

In 1790, the United States Congress passed the Indian Nonintercourse Act, which requires that all transfers of lands from Native Americans to others be approved by the federal government. The law has not been changed in any relevant respect, and it remains in effect today. Its purpose is clear. It was meant tribes for recovery of lands held by them when the Nonintercourse Act took effect.

One natural (one might almost say obvious) way of reasoning about Native American claims to land in North America is this: Native Americans were the first human occupants of this land. Before the European invasion of North America, the land belonged to them. In the course of that invasion and its aftermath, easily be righted by returning the land to them—or by returning it wherever that is feasible.

What this question is testing

Locate Detail

Your task

Pin down exactly what the question asks about the passage — a detail, the author's view, the structure, or the main point — before looking at the choices.

Common trap

Answers that restate a true detail from the passage but don't answer the specific question being asked.

Winning move

Anticipate the answer in your own words from the passage, then find the choice that matches that prediction.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
23.

Both passages explicitly mention which one of

Answer choices

  1. Correct58% picked this

    transfer of property from one owner

    Why this is right

    The third sentence of Passage A says that "the principle of justice in transfer specifies the conditions under which the transfer of property from one owner to another is justified". The first sentence of Passage B says that "all transfers of lands from Native Americans to others be approved by the federal government". So both passages explicitly mention transfer of property from one owner to another.

    Skill tested: Locate Detail · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  2. Not in Passage A12% picked this

    a legal basis for recovery of

    Passage B definitely has this covered with the Indian Nonintercourse Act (the last sentence of its first paragraph explicitly gets into recovery). But Passage A never discusses any laws at all. It's just talking about principles. These principles might well underlie the creation of property laws, but nothing in Passage A is explicitly about the law.

  3. Not in Passage B9% picked this

    entitlement to property in a wholly

    Only passage A talks property entitlement in "a wholly just world" (the beginning of the 2nd paragraph). Passage B does say "ideally", but that's different. Passage A was talking about how these principles of justice would operate in a wholly just world. Passage B is talking about what we would ideally do in our real world (far from wholly just) to rectify past abuses of property. To put it another way, Passage B is talking about what we should do to fix the crappy stuff done to Native Americans in our actual, unjust world. Passage A also talks about that in its final paragraph (in a more general way). But the only discussion of what happens within a wholly just world is in Passage A's 2nd paragraph.

  4. Not in Passage A17% picked this

    practicability of rectification of past

    Passage B acknowledges "this may be impractical" to fully right the wrongs of Native American property injustices. Passage A sounds totally pure about it ... its final sentence is "Actual ownership of property must then be brought into conformity with this description." In the moral universe of A, we hear them saying, "We'll do our best, given the practical constraints." We hear them saying, "We must fix this completely!"

  5. Not in Passage A: invasion3% picked this

    injustice committed as part of an

    There is definitely nothing in Passage A about "invasions". If you're taking Flex, remember the power of Control/Command + F.

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