Under Color of Law: Siliadin v France and the Dynamics of Enslavement in Historical Perspective

Abstract

A versão em português deste artigo pode ser encontrada em: ssrn.com/abstract=2292162.

When is it appropriate to apply the term "slavery" -- a concept that appears to rest on a property right -- to patterns of exploitation in contemporary society, when no state extends formal recognition to the possibility of the ownership of property in a human being? Historians, who generally position themselves as enemies of anachronism, may be particularly resistant to the use of an ancient term to describe a twenty-first century reality. And jurists have often been understandably reluctant to employ a word whose historical meaning was so closely tied to a specific property relationship that has long since been abolished in Europe and the Americas.

Keywords: contemporary slavery, powers attaching to the right of ownership, France, Saint-Domingue, European Court of Human Rights, Siliadin v. France

JEL Classification: D63, N10