Für die juristische Untersuchung der kolonialrechtlichen Erwerbsprozesse sind die dem deutschen Zivilrecht immanenten Gerechtigkeitsideale und Billigkeitsgrundsätze maßgeblich. Robin Leon Gogol gibt durch eine rechtshistorische Quellenauswertung einen Überblick über das Kolonialrecht und stellt mittels der Untersuchung des rechtlichen Rahmens der deutschen Kolonialisierungsgeschichte die Auswirkungen des Rechts auf die Provenienzforschung fest, um dann abschließend Kategorien rechtlicher Legitimität für den konkreten Einzelfall einer historischen Provenienzprüfung zu erarbeiten. Dabei behandelt er neben abstrakten juristischen Fragestellungen auch die spannende Herkunftsgeschichte der »Federkrone aus Kamerun«, die mutmaßlich vom Besitz des Manga Ndumbe Bell in die Hände des deutschen Missionars Theodor Christaller gelangt ist.
The legal investigation of colonial acquisitions is governed by the ideals of justice and equity immanent in German civil law. Robin Leon Gogol provides an overview of colonial law by evaluating legal-historical sources. Besides, he analyses the legal framework of the German colonisation history and its impact on laws on provenance research in order to elaborate categories of legal legitimacy for an individual case of a historical provenance analysis. In doing so, he addresses abstract legal issues as well as the interesting provenance story of the "Feather Crown of Cameroon", which presumably passed from the possession of Manga Ndumbe Bell, into the hands of the German missionary Theodor Christaller.
The legal investigation of colonial acquisitions is governed by the ideals of justice and equity immanent in German civil law. Robin Leon Gogol provides an overview of colonial law by evaluating legal-historical sources. Besides, he analyses the legal framework of the German colonisation history and its impact on laws on provenance research in order to elaborate categories of legal legitimacy for an individual case of a historical provenance analysis. In doing so, he addresses abstract legal issues as well as the interesting provenance story of the "Feather Crown of Cameroon", which presumably passed from the possession of Manga Ndumbe Bell, into the hands of the German missionary Theodor Christaller.