Racism as an Obstacle to Reparations for Colonial Crimes? The Doctrine of Intertemporal Law in the German-Namibian Context

Globally, demands for reparations for colonial crimes grow stronger. The German and Namibian governments were the first ones to negotiate and initial an interstate agreement to come to terms with their past. Unfortunately, they failed to respect, protect and fulfill minimum legal standards such as participation rights of affected communities. And they reproduced colonial patterns, eurocentrism, and racism. In January 2023, a lawsuit was filed against this agreement which could become a historic milestone in the decolonization of law with regard to reparations for colonial crimes. A key question in all of the legal struggles of Ovaherero and Nama for reparations has been which laws applied and were violated during German colonial rule. In this chapter, we will analyse to which extent the application of the doctrine of intertemporal law may be situated between the reproduction of colonial racism and the decolonization of our retrospective reconstruction of the laws at the time. It will also be analysed how a decolonized application of the doctrine of intertemporal law might look.