Appendix IV. 198 







The result of all this comprehensive legislation was to leave the 

 Roman-Dutch law, in the words of the Report, a mere "husk," a "skeleton, 

 a " shattered remnant." But though a remnant, it still retained vitality 

 euough to cause much trouble and perplexity in the administration of the 

 law. For it continued in force except where displaced by Ordinance, and 

 since the various Ordinances above mentioned were passed, not on any 

 definite system, but rather piecemeal, as the exigencies of the time 

 seemed to call for them, and without reference to the provisions of the 

 Roman-Dutch law which they superseded, the relation between the new 

 (English) law thus imported and the existing (Roman-Dutch) law was 

 often a matter of great difficulty to determine, and the resulting confu- 

 sion and uncertainty was considerable. " We have," says the Commis- 

 sion's Report (p. 20), referring to the co-existence of two heterogenous 

 elements in the legal system, " all the disadvantages of a mixed system 

 without the elasticity of the Roman-Dutch jurisprudence." i 



The Commission of 1912-14 — It was in these circumstances that 

 the Acting Governor of British Guiana 2 on June 4, 1912, appointed the 

 before-mentioned Commission under the Chairmanship of the Hon. J. J. 

 Nunan (then Solicitor-General, afterwards Attorney-General of the 

 Colony), " to inquire and report whether any changes in the common law 

 of the Colony are advisable, and whether such changes, if any, should be 

 made by the substitution of English law [for Roman-Dutch law] or 

 otherwise." The Commission held seven public sittings in May and June, 

 1913, for the hearing of evidence. The witnesses were nearly all prac- 

 tising lawyers or legal officials. The line of examination was much the 

 same with all. They were invited to give their opinion on a number of 

 legal matters as to which doubts and difficulties had arisen in the local 

 administration of the law. They were also asked their views as to the 

 salving of what remained of the common law. There was no serious 

 divergence of view among the witnesses. " The expression of opinion," 

 says the Report (p. 21), " in favour of the English common law has been 

 practically unanimous, the qualifications of two or three witnesses being- 

 confined ... to the support of the Roman-Dutch law in the abstract, or 

 to expressions of doubt as to the possibilities of effecting immediate 

 radical change in a satisfactory manner." The Report, which is a docu- 

 ment of considerable legal and historical interest, gives an account of the 

 Roman-Dutch law in general and traces its history in the Dutch settle- 

 ments prior to the British occupation. It then proceeds to describe 

 what is called "the legal epochs " of the Colony subsequent to 

 the occupation. After giving a summary account of the proceed 

 ings before the Commission appointed in 1824, it enumerates 

 the principal alterations made in the law of the Colony from 

 1828 onwards, with special reference to the modifications of the local 

 common law thereby effected, and explains very clearly — with regard, for 



1 We are told of cases where counsel on one side relied on the Roman-Dutch law, counsel 

 on the other side on the English law governing: contracts. And such cases must have been 

 of frequent occurrence. 



2 Sir Charles Cox, K.C.M.G. then Mr. C. Cox. C.M.G. 



