Comparative Analysis of Reparations for the Holocaust and for the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Abstract

This article provides a legal and economic comparison of proposed reparations for the Transatlantic Slave Trade and already realized German Holocaust reparations. Neither injustice was legal at the time according to international common law. This line of legal reasoning was successfully applied at the Nuremberg trials but did not lead to Holocaust reparations. Instead, representatives of the perpetrator side reached out to representatives of the victimized side. Emory University’s Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database is used to determine the amounts the primarily European countries who participated in the slave trade would owe if the same per-victim reparations rate were applied, both uncompounded and compounded over time. After controlling for differences in the number of victims and the passage of time, Transatlantic Slave Trade reparations demands resemble German Holocaust reparations payments. Thus, German Holocaust reparations may serve as a blueprint for eventual Transatlantic Slave Trade reparations.