Dear Editor,
There is no moral defence to a claim for reparations for the damage done to enslaved people and their descendants. There is not, however, today, any mechanism in “international law” to either institute such a claim or to enforce a judgment granted if such a claim were adjudicated.
Because the quantum of damages would be so enormous if such an action were actually sustained, governments, with the power necessary to ward off such actions, would not permit them to be entertained. Such governments would accept the most well informed legal advice that judgments in reparation cases would result in insolvency for defendant countries that would destroy their social fabric.
Accordingly potential claimants should consider strategies that would provide an avenue for decent potential defendants to enter into agreements that would facilitate reparations without insolvency. Such strategies may change from time to time .Perhaps a good starting point would be an arrangement whereby potential defendant states agree to provide free education up to, say, age 25, with the additional material support necessary for a decent lifestyle commensurate with the standard prevailing in the country involved, to all youth who can reasonably be described as “descendants of slaves”.
It would be only a beginning, and the U.N could be approached to assist in its implementation. Such an agreement or agreements would be without prejudice to the legal rights of either party.
Yours faithfully,
Romain Pitt
