What could reparatory justice for slavery look like?

Getty Images Calls for the UK to provide reparations for its historic role in the slave trade have reignited ahead of a meeting of Commonwealth countries on Friday. While Sir Keir Starmer said reparatory justice would not be on the agenda, Commonwealth leaders have defied the prime minister and plan to move towards a “meaningful conversation” on the issue. The UK has long faced calls to provide reparations for its role in the Atlantic slave trade which saw millions of Africans enslaved and forced to work, largely on plantations in the Caribbean and Americas. The chancellor told the BBC the UK would not be “paying out” reparations – but might there be other forms of reparations to consider, and how likely is it that the UK would commit to them? Reparations are measures to make amends for past actions deemed wrong or unfair. From 1500, the British government and the monarchy were prominent participants in the centuries-long slave trade, alongside other European nations. Britain also had a key role in ending the trade, through Parliament’s passage of a law to abolish slavery in 1833. As part of that law, British plantation owners were paid for the loss of their slaves,...