Confronting Colonial Amnesia: Towards New Relational Engagement with Colonial Injustice and Cultural Colonial Objects

Abstract

Colonial injustice has suffered from the effects of amnesia in international law. Law has served as an instrument to justify injustice in the past and to silence its contemporary effects. The rise of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, TWAIL scholarship and the current debate on racism, slavery and return of cultural colonial objects illustrate the ongoing effects of colonialism. Some seemingly neutral principles and institutions of international law contribute to colonial amnesia. This contribution argues that it is time to revisit this status quo. It draws on emerging case law, scholarship and practices to identify news ways of relational engagement with the past. It suggests a re-reading of three fundamental dimensions of post-colonial engagement with colonial injustice: intertemporality, legal subjectivity and the approach towards cultural colonial objects. It claims that international criminal law has only a modest role in relation to colonial crimes. However, some wider lessons and methods from the field of transitional justice may help to mitigate contemporary dilemmas and contribute to a more post-colonial international law.