Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II, and: Holocaust Justice: The Battle for Restitution in America's Courts (review)

For nearly two decades, academics, policy makers, and commentators have toyed with definitions of globalization. Many of the more abstract formulations stress the truncation of time and space, emphasizing digitalized communications and eased travel (at least prior to September 11, 2001). One image is that of corporations striding across the globe like the "unbound Prometheus."

The stories told by Stuart E. Eizenstat and by Michael J. Bazyler have little resemblance to such vivid, stylized images. Instead, they provide an alternative conception of how this process, as the Cold War dissipated, has helped create an environment in which many issues once subjugated to the exigencies of superpower politics have come to the forefront of the public agenda. Corporations have become increasingly subject to the vagaries of new forces that include not only "naming and shaming" but also judicial sanction. They can be held accountable for things that happen across the globe or that happened before many of their current employees were even born. Specifically, the concept of a foreign multinational corporation (albeit one with assets located in the United States) standing trial in a class action lawsuit in a U.S. court in the name of a foreign plaintiff may also reflect the consequences of globalization. Such an example illustrates the transnational nature of the new global economy, the effective legal reach of the American judiciary, and the power of both consumer boycotts and government sanctions on the behavior of some of the world's largest corporations.

Both Eizenstat and Bazyler chronicle the emergence and evolution of the issue of restitution and compensation for crimes of the Holocaust. As each author makes clear in his own way, addressing historic injustices and ultimately making some form of restitution could occur only after the Iron Curtain had fallen. Only then could those accused face the prospect of both standing trial in American courts and being judged by a wider public audience. The authors adopt, however, very different perspectives and propose generally contrasting causes to account for the escalating events related to compensation and restitution beginning with the notorious Swiss banks case of the 1990s.

Eizenstat frames his book as a memoir, although he deserves credit for resisting any temptation to make himself the central character. Introductory chapters describe the historical issues behind the politics of restitution and compensation, and the evolution of the central characters involved in Jewish lobbying efforts. The book has understandably been depicted as an 'insider's account' of the events leading to the recovery of lost assets, one written by a well-placed American government official. In his foreword, Elie Wiesel lauds Eizenstat for his efforts in recovering the lost property of refugees and for gaining recognition and justice for former slave laborers.

Eizenstat's association with Holocaust issues dates from his involvement with the presidential exploratory commission set up by the Carter White House on a proposed Holocaust memorial (the subsequent United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). But after serving as Carter's chief domestic policy adviser, Eizenstat's career digressed from a direct involvement in Jewish affairs when he accepted a series of diplomatic postings in Europe.

Eizenstat recounts, however, the story of how he was asked in 1995 by Richard Holbrooke, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, to accept an appointment as the State Department's special envoy on the issue of confiscated Jewish property in Eastern Europe. Significantly, the Clinton administration, Eizenstat notes, did not see this as a moral issue worthy in its own right, but rather determined that "property restitution was to be part of a broader U.S. policy to...