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Two of my articles discuss the issue -- of the two, the one in the Virginia Law Review has the most explicit and extensive discussion of corrective justice, but both address the underlying dynamics of the 'subtractive' issue. The cites are:

On Owning Information: Intellectual Property and the Restitutionary Impulse, 78 Virginia Law Review 149-281 (1992).

Of Harms and Benefits: Torts, Restitution, and Intellectual Property, 21 Journal of Legal Studies 449-482 (1992). (That's the J of Legal Studies out of the U of Chicago.)

Jules Coleman also published a reaction to my use of corrective justice to analyze restitution -- I don't have the exact cite, but Jules's piece follows mine in the same volume of the Virginia L Review. (I think Jules misses my point, but I may be self-interested ...) You should also be sure to see the work on corrective justice by Ernest Weinrib which I cite in my Virginia piece -- and keep your eyes out for a new book by Weinrib which I hear will be examining the corrective justice/restitution issue in more depth than he usually has. (Weinrib's former focus was on Torts rather than restitution.)

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Wendy J. Gordon
Professor of Law
Boston University Law School
765 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215

Phone: 617-353-4420
Fax: 617-353-3077
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On Mon, 26 Feb 1996 Mitchell McInnes wrote:

It occasionally is said that the law of restitution (at least in the subtractive enrichment sense) is based upon a notion of corrective justice. The issue was explored in Barker, "Unjust Enrichment: Containing the Beast" (1995) 15 OJLS 457. Does anyone know of additional citations or have any thoughts on the matter? Specifically, I am interested in the issue as it pertains to the second element of the principle of unjust enrichment ("at the plaintiff's expense").