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26 May 2023 / Thomas Roe KC
Issue: 8026 / Categories: Features , Profession , International justice , Equality , Public
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Slavery: room for reparations?

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Is there potential for a legal claim for reparations for the slave trade? Thomas Roe KC examines the possibilities & limitations under public international law
  • Examines whether states could have a claim in public international law against states complicit in the transatlantic slave trade.
  • Covers some historical context, including written works of Olaudah Equiano from 1789, and international treaties.
  • Refers to the Island of Palmas case.

In 2013, the Caribbean Community set up the CARICOM Reparations Commission to ‘prepare the case [for] reparatory justice for the Caribbean region’s indigenous and African descendant communities who are the victims of Crimes Against Humanity in the form of genocide, slavery, slave trading and racial apartheid’. A decade on, the issue is rarely far from the headlines.

CARICOM’s proposal encompasses a variety of approaches. This article focuses on the issue of law: do states have a tenable claim in public international law against states complicit in the transatlantic slave trade? (See generally Buser, Colonial Injustices and the Law of State Responsibility,

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