194 Timehri. 



example, to the doctrines of consideration and stare decisis — the uncer- 

 tainty and confusion h the administration of the law which resulted from 

 the dual system of ..■w and from the methods of legislative amendment 

 hitherto followed. In the result the Commissioners came to the conclu- 

 sion that no half measures would suffice for placing the law of the Colony 

 on a satisfactory footing. They accordingly made a drastic recommenda- 

 tion in favour of the introduction of English common law " in regard to 

 all mercantile matters, to all domestic relations (including marriage, 

 judicial separation and divorce, the law of husband and wife, parent and 

 child, guardian or curator and minors, and master and servant), to the 

 law of delicts or torts, agency, suretyship, liens, intestate succession, and 

 in fact to all the law of persons, things, obligations, inheritance, and 

 every other description of matters whatsoever not dealt with by legisla- 

 tion, or otherwise expressly exempted." An important "exemption" 

 was made with regard to land. '' The English law of real property," the 

 Report continues, " should be expressly excluded." On this point there 

 was absolute unanimity. '' We have no desire to introduce the compli- 

 cated incidents of (English) real property law. Special recommendations 

 were made with regard to a number of heterogeneous legal topics, such as 

 the law of trustees, bills of sale, prescription, intestate succession 

 (" movable and immovable property should be treated alike for all pur- 

 poses of succession"), legitims, divorce, legitimation per subsequens 

 matrimonium , the " Aquilian right " to damages for death caused by 

 negligence, administration, and probate. A special memorandum was 

 devoted to the peculiar local system of conveyancing — the sale, leasing 

 and mortgaging of land — a system (based partly on the Ronian-Dutch 

 common law, partly on Rules of Court)) which had been in operation 

 since 1529, a d which, with some changes of method, it was desired to 

 retain. i Annexed to the Report was a Draft Code called " the Common 

 Law Codification and Reform Bill " for carrying into effect " the more 

 urgent of the measures " suggested by the Commissioners, and the adop- 

 tion of this Code was recommended. 



The Introduction of English Law- — The next step was to put these 

 recommendations into practical shape. To that end the Governor, on 

 November 28, 1914, appointed a Committee (" The Statute Law Com- 

 mittee"), of which Mr. Kunan was again Chairman, " to consider what 

 English statutes should bo adopted in the Colony to enable the law to be 

 altered from Roman-Dutch to English." The function of the Committee, 

 as explained in their own Report, was " to assist in the completion of the 

 scheme (suggested by the Common Law Commission) by the recommen- 

 datk n of such portions of the English statute law as will place the com- 

 munity, as far as possible, in regard to legal rules and principles in 

 general, and especially in regard to the rules and principles of commercial 

 law, on the same footing as the people of England at the present time." 

 The Report of the Committee was dated July 27, 1915, and was published 

 in 1916. After adverting to the " accepted policy " of introducing the 



1 The nystem is explained iu Proi'essor Lee'o Roman-Dutch Law. p.p. 128 ff. and 184 ff. 



