Does Haiti Have a Legal Right to Compensation from France?

Two earlier C&C episodes explored aspects of the Haitian Independence Debt of 1825, in which Haiti agreed to pay France an "indemnity" of 150 million francs to compensate French plantation owners who had been dispossessed by Haitians' successful fight for independence. In a new paper with Kim Oosterlinck and Ugo Panizza (link below), we explore this history, its relation to the law of odious debt, and we estimate the long-term economic consequences of the debt for Haiti. (Hint: very significant.) But might Haiti have a legal right to compensation from France? In this episode, we talk with Gunther Handl (Tulane) an expert in public international law who worked on this very question in the 2000s. Many might dismiss the prospect as fantasy, but Gunther explains why Haiti is on much stronger legal footing than many would suppose.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3894623

Producer: Leanna Doty