Ep 38 ft. Matthias Goldmann

Can Courts Help Right Historical Wrongs? In the early 1900s, the first genocide of the 20th century occurred in what was then the colony of German Southwest Africa (now Namibia). Perpetrated by the German government, decades of widespread seizure of property and imposition of forced labor were followed by the mass killing of tens of thousands of the Ovaherero and Nama peoples. In recent years, there has been talk of reparations, but these talks have not resulted in payment. So descendants of the genocide victims filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York, which ultimately failed. Matthias Goldmann has written insightfully about that lawsuit—and about many, many other things as well. He joins us to discuss, in the first half of the episode, Germany’s colonial past in Africa and efforts to use the courts to redress historical wrongs. In the second half, we get to ask Matthias about modern sovereign debt problems, especially Mozambique’s challenge to the enforceability of loans associated with the tuna bond scandal. Producer: Leanna Doty