Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
Reparations for colonialism and colonial-era atrocities have moved from an unrealized demand of citizens, politicians, and thinkers in the Global South to a project with some results in the real world. Key markers include the return of numerous art objects from museums in the Global North to their countries of origin; the release of the Caribbean Community and Common Market’s (CARICOM) proposal for reparations; and Namibia’s agreement with Germany on compensation for the German genocide against the Herero people in 1904–08 —along with the resultant controversy. These developments follow earlier claims for reparations directed to—and their eventual acceptance by—the governments of Canada and New Zealand, domestic courts in the Netherlands and the UK, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. At the same time, it remains the case that reparations for colonialism are overall few and far between.
Recommended Citation
Ratner, Steven R. "Reparations for Colonialism: Beyond Legal Responsibility." American Journal of International Law 119, no. 3 (2025): 507-529. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/ajil.2025.10077
Comments
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Society of International Law. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), which permits re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the same Creative Commons licence is used to distribute the re-used or adapted article and the original article is properly cited. Originally published as Ratner, Steven. “Reparations for Colonialism Beyond Legal Responsibility.” American Journal of International Law 119, no. 3 (2025): 507–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/ajil.2025.10077.