WEST INDIAN LAW AND APPEALS. 



By Joseph J. Nunan, LL.D., Attorney General. 



A good deal of water has passed under the mill since I addressed the 

 leaders of Timehri on this subject in the number for July, 1912. The 

 Commission on the Roman-Dutch law of the colony has met, heard 

 evidence at great length and has presented its report. It has recom- 

 mended the substitution of the English for the Roman-Dutch Common 

 Law while deprecating the introduction of the complexities of English 

 Real Property, for avoiding which it makes provision. It embodies its 

 recommendations in the form of a short Code. This piece of draft 

 legislation will have the opportunity of standing criticism for some eight 

 or nine months before it is likely to become law. During that time 

 valuable suggestions to amend or to supplement it should be forthcoming. 

 In fact, as its draftsman I shall gladly welcome any assistance from any 

 quarter which will secure the improvement of this vital part of the re- 

 commendations and the introduction of this unprecedented alteration of 

 system without friction. Meanwhile the proposals of the Commission 

 have received the unanimous support of the Colonial press and so far 

 not a voice has been raised in defence of the chaotic jumble of English 

 and Roman-Duteh law which after one hundred and eleven years from 

 the Capitulation is all that is left of the Common law of the United Colony 

 of Demerara and Essequebo and of the Colony of Berbice. 



The result of the substitution of English for Roman-Dutch law in the 

 colony will no doubt favour the establishment of a common Conn of Appeal 

 for British Guiana and the West Indies, or at least for British Guiana and 

 that part of the West Indies lying to the east of Jamaica. Throughout 

 that area the law and procedure will by the end of the year be virtually 

 the same except where the law has been codified. In Jamaica Spanish 

 law existed at the time of its capture in 1655, but the Spanish popula- 

 tion was small and rapidly vanished before the influx of English coloni- 

 zation. No trace of Spanish law survived the 17th century. In 1901 

 Sir Courtenay Ilbert in Legislative Methods and Forms correctly re- 

 ferred to St. Vincent as having been formerly governed by the CoHtume 

 de Purls, but added that while most traces of French law have dis- 

 appeared from the island "it is said that some old French arrets are 

 still in force " 1 he Common Law Commissioners made inquiry of the 

 Administration of St. Vincen through the proper official channel and 

 were informed that this is no longer comet, that the Common law is 

 entirely English and that the Criminal law is an adaptation of our own 

 Indictable Offences Ordinance, 1893 In St. Lucia the old Coiltume 

 de Paris made a stouter fight for existence and would probably have 

 survived in that island in very much the same form as in Quebec but for 

 the zeal for codification. With the advent of Mr. Armstrong, ;■ Canadian 

 lawyer, as Chief Justice, a Civil Code based on the law of Upper Canada 

 replaced the obsolescent customary law and procedure in 1879 during 



