Jamaica’s government announced Wednesday that its reparations case against Britain has been referred to the United Kingdom’s highest court of appeal for the Caribbean island.
The unprecedented legal maneuver marks a watershed moment in the fraught historical relationship between Britain and its Caribbean realms, moving a centuries-old grievance from the realm of political rhetoric into one of the highest echelons of the British legal system: the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
“It is really a very big deal, and the world is watching us,” said Olivia Grange, Jamaica’s minister of culture, gender, entertainment and sport. “What we are doing is historic, unprecedented and a major development in the reparatory justice movement. Talk of reparations has for a very long time been just that: talk. But Jamaica is known for action. The tide is changing, we are getting things done.”
