Roman-Dutch Law and the West Indian Appeal Court. 105 
and offers no difficulty. The Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes are 
English. A few French arrétes may survive as historical lumber in St. Vincent 
but French law has otherwise disappeared in that island also. The law of the 
British West Indian Islands, it may be stated without hesitation, is English 
law. The procedure is English procedure. The South African Appeal Court 
was promptly created when the two independent republics became British 
Colonies and the other points at issue were disposed of in favour of a Union. 
It could not have been done before 1902. West Indian difficulties in the way 
of federation are neither political nor racial nor linguistic. In South Africa 
they were all three. They are rapidly vanishing and the end will not require 
a civil war for its accomplishment. We are no further from Jamaica than 
Durban is from Capetown either by time or distance, and insular particularism 
is vanishing in face of the pressure of modern needs. The West Indian Appeal 
Court will be created when any person in authority works out a reasonable 
financial scheme, while meeting the local requivements of Trinidad and 
Jamaica, the most important of the communities from a litigious standpoint, 
for the rapid disposal of their own numerous appeals. Permanent headquarters 
in Trinidad with half-yearly sessions in the other colonies, and a single addi- 
tional Appeal Judge, the various Chief Justices and Acting Chief Justices sitting 
by rota would meet the case. One of the three British Guiana Judgeships 
could be dispensed with and other savings effected elsewhere. No additional 
expense would be incurred. It may be necessary to leave Jamaica out of 
count at the outset until the success of a less ambitious scheme is assured. 
But ifthe duty of beginning a study of Roman-Dutch law to meet the re- 
quirements of British Guiana is added to the other duties which the 
scheme will inevitably entail upon Judges even now underpaid, and 
in Trinidad by no means under-worked, its realization will be indefinitely 
postponed. But I will not further anticipate the work of the Commission 
to which Mr. Dalton’s assistance will, I hope, be forthcoming. While 
differing from Mr. Dalton’s opinions, or rather from their applicability, 
for as regards the merits of Roman-Dutch law as a system in the abstract, 
or as suitable to South African requirements, we are at one, I think the 
readers of Timehri will be pleased to see his able paper upon a subject 
of vital interest, which cannot be disposed of until every point of view has 
been carefully considered. 
eS 
