OPBP's latest report on "Inter-temporality and Reparations for Colonial and other Historic Atrocities" is now published

Oxford Pro Bono Publico (OPBP) produced a report that analyses inter-temporality and reparations for colonial and other historic atrocities. The commissioning organisation seeks to identify the hurdles that the principle of inter-temporality in international law (i.e., that actions must be assessed according to the law in force at the time of their commission) places on peoples and individuals (and not States) when pursuing reparations for historic atrocities; as well as the duties upon states which might be said to owe these reparations. 

This comparative legal research explores the limitations on international or inter-state liability posed by the inter-temporal principle as applied to reparations for colonial and other past atrocities, including the legal status of these limitations. It further explores what other principles or mechanisms of international law (if any) have been contemplated and/or applied as exceptions to the principle of inter-temporal law in the context of colonial and other past atrocities. 

The report considers international law as reflected in the jurisprudence of the Permanent Court of International Justice and the International Court of Justice, the African Human and Peoples’ Rights Charter, the American Convention on Human Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Take a look at OPBP's past projects.