The Sephardic Return Law

From Hope to Right

Abstract

After researching the path to The Sephardic's Law of Return, we answer the following question: is it the recognition of a legal duty to repair the descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews or only a “symbolic” reparation? ... We conclude that the Portuguese State does not have to compensate for damages or losses. However, a legal duty of reinstatement is justified, due to the deprivation of Portuguese nationality to which their ancestors were subjected. From a brief comparison with other hypothetical or concrete requests, based on historical processes of deprivation of nationality, freedom, or national sovereignty, we see a new frontier of human rights, a new challenge, in a complex matter, but to which is urgent to respond. All this arouses curiosity for respecting harmful acts practiced by extinct political regimes, but where the limits of responsibility for facts practiced in one era are tested in the law of another.