The most directly applicable precedents in international law are the cases arising from colonialism and decolonisation in the twentieth century. In these cases, international tribunals have generally required specific treaty provisions or explicit acceptance of liability before successor states have been found responsible for the acts of predecessor colonial governments. No such treaty provision covers the Atlantic slave trade.
Germany’s reparations to Holocaust survivors and to Israel are sometimes cited as a precedent, but they were based on explicit acceptance of liability by the German government rather than on a finding by an international court. They provide no legal authority for claims that a state can be compelled to pay reparations for historical wrongs in the absence of voluntary acceptance.
