1 Introduction

Abstract

This introductory chapter defines the scope of this book by setting out the British overseas territories and the timing of their decolonization and the meaning of the term ‘bill of rights’. It also identifies the two major existing theories on the reasons for the growth of bills of rights in the British overseas territories during the 1950s and 1960s: first, that bills of rights were incorporated into colonial constitutions as a result of local demand for minority protection at independence; second, that bills of rights appeared throughout the British territories as a result of Britain's extension of the European Convention on Human Rights over her overseas territories. The chapter also explains the methodological approach of the book, namely to model the complex interrelationship between the key decision makers in each of the overseas territories examined.