The Unification of Law in the British Isles

Abstract

THE subject of this paper is the unification of law in the British Isles, but the context in which it should be placed is infinitely wider. The unification of law in these islands would be the microcosm of a world law within which national territorial variations might well exist in the sense of the legal systems of the states of a federation. But a world organisation will necessarily be the minimum unit of inter-planetary intercourse to which scientific progress is rapidly committing this world, and in that world organisation a measure of unification of law would appear indispensable. This larger theme is far beyond the scope of what can be discussed here. All that is before us is the possibility of a beginning. For the purpose of this modest beginning, the British Isles may be taken as comprising England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.