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I have a couple linked questions that I hope are not too rudimentary, on which I'd appreciate the thoughts of list members.

First: Would a claim for the value of forced labour be a claim in unjust enrichment narrowly construed -- i.e., as an autonomous cause of action -- or enrichment by wrong? Is P's claim, in other words, that she deserves the value of her labour because she did not intend to confer it as a gift, or that D ought to be stripped of the gains she realized through the commission of wrongs to P (e.g., the torts of assault and false imprisonment)?

The former, I'd think, though it seems odd to say so. If so, is it possible that P has a second claim against D, one better reckoned as a claim in enrichment by wrong, to disgorge profits D realized through selling goods P was compelled to make? What about a claim against a third party, say a gov't for some amount of sales tax on goods made by slave labour?

Second: Setting aside cases in which P retains legal title to an asset now in D's possession -- and so setting aside too the question whether such cases belong in the law of unjust enrichment -- are there examples of cases of subtractive enrichment by wrong, so to speak, i.e., cases in which (a) P's claim rests upon proof that D committed a civil wrong against her (P), and (b) P asks that D give something, or its value, back to her (P)?

Thanks,

Dennis

Dennis Klimchuk
Dept of Philosophy and Faculty of Law
University of Western Ontario