The UK Law Weekly podcast has been going for nearly 150 episodes but few cases have stuck with me as much as R (Bancoult (No. 2)) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2016] UKSC 35.

Whereas most cases (like the most recent episode) deal with subjects like compensation that, in the grand scheme of things, are of little global importance; the case of Olivier Bancoult was about a man trying to get his country back for his people.

The Chagos Islands may only be a small archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean but they have been deemed as being of great strategic importance to the U.S and then to the U.K throughout the 20th Century. This has come at the expense of the native Chagossians who were forced from their homes and now live as a diaspora around the globe. In the 2004 documentary Stealing a Nation, John Pilger showed how peaceful life on the islands was before they were re-purposed for military use.

Unfortunately Bancoult has not had much success at all before the English courts. The UK now runs the islands as a ‘marine protected area’ but in the most recent case this was challenged on the basis of a damning cable that was revealed by WikiLeaks. Still this was not enough for the Supreme Court but today a judgment from the International Court of Justice may have provided a breakthrough.

In a damning indictment it was held that nearby Mauritius had been forced to give up the islands in return for its independence in 1965 in contravention of the right to self-determination. The UK was implored to end its administration as soon as possible.

This might only be an advisory judgment but it now pushes the issue to the UN where it will generate more discussion and place public pressure on the UK government. The political debate is far from over but today’s news makes one thing very clear: the law sees no place for colonialism in the 21st Century.