Evidence in Restitution Law. Translating Museological Restitutionary Work and Provenance Research to the Legal Field

The paper compares the scope, procedures and criteria of three national restitution frameworks in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Their foundational criterion focuses on past moments of acquisition or dispossession. While this centres the recognition of colonial injustice, it also introduces European legal questions of evidence. Interpretations along the archival grain have hampered past claims, but recent developments show greater inclusion of indigenous viewpoints, more critical readings of archives and attention to structural injustice. At the same time, there is increasing advocacy for grounding restitution in the present, based on the social, spiritual or cultural significance of artefacts for communities today. This challenges European legal systems in their core logics and raises questions about how these paradigms coexist and may contribute to decolonising the field of law.