“The UK remains the same state:” Legal expert challenges Britain’s position on colonial reparations

A legal expert has challenged arguments that the United Kingdom’s present government cannot be held responsible for wrongdoing committed during the colonial era, saying changes in political leadership do not change the identity of the state under international law.

Dr. Asikia Karibi-Whyte, a jurisprudence and international law expert, made the argument during a panel discussion at the University of Lagos following the launch of CO2lonialism, Ecocide and Reparations, a new research report examining the ecological legacy of colonial rule in Africa.

Responding to questions surrounding Britain’s potential responsibility for colonial-era environmental damage, Dr. Karibi-Whyte said the argument that a current government cannot pay for the wrongdoing of previous governments is weak because the law recognises the United Kingdom as a continuing state entity, irrespective of changes in government personnel.

The discussion formed part of a broader examination of whether environmental destruction associated with colonial rule can be incorporated into African reparations claims.

The report documents the ecological consequences of colonial economic systems and argues that these should be subjected to rigorous assessment and monetary valuation.

Dr. Karibi-Whyte also highlighted the Certain Phosphate Lands in Nauru proceedings before the International Court of Justice as an important precedent. The case involved environmental devastation caused by phosphate mining during the colonial period and demonstrated that environmental damage associated with colonial administration can become the subject of an international legal claim.

The report’s lead author, Professor J. G. Nkem Onyekpe, said the ecological dimension of colonial extraction represents a potentially enormous category of historical damage.

He cited a 2022 peer-reviewed estimate valuing resources appropriated from the Global South through unequal exchange at more than $10 trillion in 2015 alone, arguing that a comparable analysis extended across the full period of colonial rule and affected African states could potentially run into the hundreds of trillions.

Professor Nnagugwu Oscar Uluocha, Professor of Geography at the University of Lagos, reinforced the environmental dimension of the argument, describing the ecological damage inflicted on Nigeria under British colonial rule as “colossal.”

The report is expected to be submitted to the African Union’s Committee of Experts on Reparations and Legal Reference Group on Reparations as part of efforts to develop a common African approach to reparations.