The Court of Cassation, France’s highest court, on Wednesday considered appeals filed by several associations and individuals seeking compensation from the state for the “cross-generational damage” allegedly suffered by slaves’ descendants.
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After the rejection of their application at first instance and on appeal, three associations as well as 23 individuals appealed in cassation, hoping to establish this damage in connection with the slave trade, in which France was actively involved from the 17th century until the abolition of slavery in year 1848.
Acknowledgment of this harm would, according to plaintiffs’ attorney Me Patrice Spinosi, “go beyond the law,” “merely symbolic,” passed in France in 2001, making the slave trade and slavery crimes against humanity.
Before the Court of Cassation, the lawyer claimed that he was drawing “specific legal and financial consequences arising from the state’s responsibility in slavery”.
The goal is to “receive financial compensation that will be paid into a fund that can meet the claims of the descendants of the slaves,” Me Spinosi told AFP.
Advocate General Blandine Mallet-Bricout, representing the public prosecutor’s office, pleaded for the dismissal of this appeal.
The Court of Cassation will announce its decision on July 5.
This procedure is not the first of its kind.
Following the passage of the 2001 Act, several associations in the West Indies brought unsuccessful claims for redress against the state.