Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - September - 2007 Issue
Legal Works from The British Colonial Empire from The Lawbook Exchange
A compendium of laws from the Cape Colony, now part of South Africa.
On Hastings return to England, Francis enlisted the aid of Edmund Burke, the great orator and writer, Member of Parliament, and liberal who had supported the American colonists in their disputes with the Crown. Burke spearheaded the impeachment trial of Hastings, on charges of corruption and mistreatment of the Indian people, which he felt sullied British honor. Impeachment was initiated in 1786; the trial began in 1788, but did not conclude until 1795. Hastings was acquitted. Hastings had lost all of his fortune defending himself, but the East India Company would provide him with a sufficient annuity to restore a healthy retirement. $1,000.
The rest of the material will be of interest to legal scholars and collectors. For example, item 20 is a 1928 work concerning laws affecting women and children in South Africa by the first woman to be admitted to the bar of that nation. Item 6, also from 1928, covers opinions by Sir Ofori Atta, a Ghanaian chief who became a highly respected, and later knighted judge. Item 33 is a compendium of the law of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Colony) from 1903-1909. This was one of the colonies incorporated into South Africa in 1910. Item 36 is the only compilation of the law of Griqualand West published during that territory's existence. Where is Griqualand West? It became the northern part of the Cape Colony when annexed in 1880, meaning it is now part of South Africa.
Item 66 is the first treatise on the patent law of Canada, published in 1894. Item 75 presents the statutes of New Brunswick, from 1854, when it was a colony, in the days before Canada was formed. Item 96 is ten volumes of The Upper Canada Law Journal, 1855-1864, when today's Ontario was still known as "Upper Canada." Item 143 offers the first ordinances of British Cyprus, a difficult land to rule because of the long-standing rivalry between ethnic Greek and Turkish populations.
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