Appendix IV. 189 



in British Guiana. The event marks an important and decisive stage 

 in the checkered history of the Roman-Dutch Law in the Colony, l 



It is well known that, when the Dutch settlements of Demerara, 

 Essequibo, and Berbice (which were afterwards constituted the Colony 

 of British Guiana,) passed definitely under British rule in 1814, the 

 existing local laws and usages were, in accordance with the British policy 

 usual in such cases, left undisturbed. The law thus retained, which is 

 known in the Colony as "the common law," was a form of the Roman- 

 Dutch law : 2 that mixed system of Germanic and Roman law which 

 grew up in the Low Countries in the seventeenth and the first half of 

 the eighteenth century (i.e., during the period of the greatest commercial 

 prosperity of the Dutch), and was carefully worked out, and scientifically 

 developed, in thi writings of Grotius, van Leeuwen, Voet, and other very 

 eminent Dutch jurists. 3 "It was," says the Report of the Statute Law 

 Committee, upon whose report the enactment was based, " a highly 

 organized and flexible system of common law which, but for the 

 special conditions of the Colony, would have proved as suitable for all 

 commercial and social requirements as a similar form of jurisprudence 

 has done for . . . South Africa.'' Some of these "special conditions" 

 are fully explained in the Report ; others are implied rather than stated. 

 Together they form an interesting and instructive bit of legal history. 



The Commission of 1824 — Soon after the settlements had passed 

 under British rule, there was serious trouble with regard to the adminis- 

 tration of justice in the Colony, and more particularly with regard to 

 criminal procedure. In 1824 a Commission was accordingly appointed 

 " to inquire into the administration of criminal and civil justice in the 

 West Indian and South American Colonies." The recommendations of 

 the Commission were mainly concerned with criminal procedure, a depart- 

 ment of law in which the divergence of principle between the Roman- 

 Dutch law and English law would naturally be most pronounced. * As 

 regards the civil law, however, i.e., the Roman-Dutch substantive law, 

 the Commission cited the opinion of the highest local authorities to 

 the effect that it was simple and well adapted to the wants and 



1 The way had been prepared for the enactment of this Ordinance by the publication in 

 1916 of the Report of the Statute Law Committee appointed by the Governor of British 

 Guiana in November. 1911. to advise as to the best means of giving- effect to the recommenda- 

 tions made by the so-called Common Law Commission in their Report printed in April, laii. 



2 For fuller details of the history of Roman-Dutch Law in British Guiana reference should 

 be made to Professor R. W. Lee's article in vol. xiv. (p.ll) of this journal ; and also to 

 Dr. Bisschop's Article on " Modern Roman-Dutch Law " in the Law Quarterly Review, vol. 

 xxiv, p. Ii7. 



3 See R. W. Lee, Introduction to Iloman-Dutch Law, Clarendon Press, p, H ff, 



4 For fuller information as to the early history of criminal procedure in the Colony refer- 

 ence should be made to the above-mentioned article by Professor Lee (pp. 12. 13J. The 

 Report of the Commission was only signed by one Commissioner (Mr. Jabez Henry), the other 

 two having' died in office, 



