Colonial Law Research Articles

Bonds of Empire: The English Origins of Slave Law in South Carolina and British Plantation America, 1660–1783 by Lee B. Wilson

Reviewed by: Bonds of Empire: The English Origins of Slave Law in South Carolina and British Plantation America, 1660–1783by Lee B. Wilson Matthew Mason Bonds of Empire: The English Origins of Slave Law in South Carolina and British Plantation America, 1660–1783. By Lee B. Wilson. Cambridge Historical Studies in American Law and Society. ( New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. xiv, 274. $59.99, ISBN 978-1-108-49525-7.) This erudite volume adds to the scholarly understanding of American slaveholders' deep engagements with the most modern features of the Atlantic [End Page 541]world, as well as of the multiple mechanisms they wielded in pursuit of mastery over their human property. In it, Lee B. Wilson offers deeply documented insights, preeminently on legal history and the history of slavery. At the core of Wilson's argument is the contention that South Carolina's colonial-era slaveholders, far from being "beyond the pale of English imperial legal history," constructed the legal machinery that controlled and dehumanized enslaved Africans directly from English law (p. 5). To demonstrate this point she analyzes sources that include but range far beyond statute law, illustrating how white South Carolinians—much like their counterparts in early modern England—employed a wide variety of "routine 'private' practices and civil litigation" to make "slavery work on a daily basis" (p. 11). In the process, legally savvy white Carolinians found the best mechanisms within the intricacies of the British empire's legal patchwork to create a legal culture that "worked quietly and invidiously to commodify enslaved people" both within and beyond Carolina's borders (p. 11). This analysis makes this volume a real contribution to the literature, revealing that the British Atlantic was "a world in which 'law' was an action rather than an object" and in which "litigants transformed legal procedure into a site of innovation" (p. 9). Its contribution goes beyond geographically widening our lens on that world, for it shows that such innovation could be used to oppress as much as to liberate. Among the invidious consequences of these multiple methods of categorizing African slaves as chattel property, Wilson asserts, was the broad psychological acceptance among these white people of the notion that Black people were subhuman. Readers of this journal familiar with long-running historiographical debates about the degree of guilt American slaveholders felt will closely note her running claim that it was close to zero. It was more than an ideological consequence of the chattel principle; it was also a function of how mainstream their laws were within the British Atlantic. The many scholars who have posited "that slaves were a novel form of property and that adapting colonial laws to suit slave societies was a fraught process are incorrect," she proclaims (p. 38). Instead, her research "reveals how seamless this process was as a practical and theoretical matter" (p. 38). But her own discussion nods to some of the evidence those historians have used to show metropolitan resistance to the emerging slave laws of the seventeenth-century colonies. One way to thread the needle between her thesis and that of those she aims to refute is to observe how much of her evidence of the "seamless" chattelization of Africans is from the eighteenth century, by which time it appears that chattel slavery was on firmer legal ground throughout the British empire than in the seventeenth century. Wilson's is a downright Dickensian tale of the fearsome power of the pen and legal papers to blight the lives of their victims, deployed here in Charleston or in maritime courts as much as in London. But in this sphere she also seems to overstate her argument. In the book's least restrained moments, we read that "knowledge of English law was the sine qua non of mastery over slaves" (p. 2). Less dogmatically and thus more persuasively, Wilson at other times characterizes the use of these legal tools as "an essential part of the 'technology of colonization'" that perpetuated slavery and the slave trade (p. 88). Setting aside the moments of overreach, with Bonds of Empire: The English Origins of Slave [End Page 542] Law in South Carolina and British Plantation America...

Comparing maintenance and property rights in marriage under customary law and statutory law in Africa

ABSTRACT Two dominant legal systems operate in a typical post-colonial African state: the indigenous customary law of the African people and the Received Colonial Laws. Despite the elevation of statutory laws above customary law under the modern state structure in Africa, customary law is still pervasive and regulates most aspects of the personal lives of Africans. Most commentators argue that the practice of customary law discriminates against women. This paper discusses the practice of customary law, its impact on statutory marriages, and how human rights have engendered a new trajectory in the development of customary law in Africa. The paper identifies the positive influence of the Received Colonial Laws and human rights law on maintenance and property rights and suggests the adaptation of the positive aspects of statutory law, the amendment of marriage laws, and the enactment of gender-sensitive legislation on marriage rights for women.

2. Legal and Social Review of Child Marriage in Pakistan: A Judicial Perspective

Child marriage in Pakistan is associated with social, economic, and juridical aspects rather than mere religion. It is an exception to general Islamic law for the best interests of the child. The determination of the legal age of marriage for a child is discussed, but no efficient steps are taken in Pakistan. Marriage is still regulated by an old ambiguous colonial law. Furthermore, penal amendments are introduced with zero implementation. Although child marriage is covered by penal clauses, the courts recognise such marital contracts. Recently, FST (Federal Shariat Court) and IHC (Islamabad High Court) discussed this matter in detail and equalised child marriage as a crime clearly. These courts confirmed the determination of the legal age for marriage according to sharia. Moreover, several contemporary legal principles of Islamic jurisprudence are stressed on this issue. It is highlighted to examine child marriage in the context of social and public interest. The research at hand will review child marriage in the juridical context of the courts. It will denote the social aspects of this issue. This article will analyse the latest judgments of FST and IHC.

Fluid Jurisdictions: Colonial Law and Arabs in Southeast Asia by Nurfadzilah Yahaya

Fluid Jurisdictions: Colonial Law and Arabs in Southeast Asia by Nurfadzilah Yahaya

Go (Away) West!

Go (Away) West!

Mulattoes in colonial Maryland: The effects of colonial law on patterns of freedom and enslavement

AbstractObjectiveThis study analyzes Maryland colonial law and empirically examines two sets of historical data to explore how legal codes affected the assignment of mulattoes (mixed‐descent persons) to the legal categories of freedom or enslavement. Maryland law was concerned with regulating the sexual relationships between people of European descent and people of African descent, especially when the relationship was between an enslaved African man and a free European woman who might produce a mulatto child having free legal standing.MethodsAnalysis of colonial census data and Prerogative Court Records are used to estimate both the size and the composition (enslaved vs. free) of the mulatto (mixed‐descent) population in the colony of Maryland in the 17th and 18th centuries.ResultsThe results of the analysis of historical data show that colonial law and its sanctions limited the size of the mulatto population; it was small as expected. However, there were no dramatic differences in the proportions of enslaved and free mulattoes, a pattern that ran contrary to the logic of colonial law. The lack of any dramatic difference between the two status groups may be explained by demographic patterns specific to the early stages of colonization.ConclusionsThe attempt of colonial lawmakers to limit the proportion of free mulattoes was not effective, at least in the initial periods of building a slave society. Some suggestions for future research combining the efforts of historians and geneticists should examine how the relationships between the European and African descent populations likely had distinctive patterns in the early formation of enslavement as an institution compared to a later period where enslavement became the fate of most persons of African descent.

Universalising colonial law principles on land law and land registration: the role of the Institut Colonial International (1894)

ABSTRACT In 1894, the Institut Colonial International was founded in Brussels, with the aim to engage and promote transnational exchanges between jurists, scholars, politicians, colonial administrators and experts, comparing different colonial experiences. As the Institut Colonial International’s founders had hoped, its publications promoted legal debates, discussions and the prospects of specific legislation, decrees or norms to be adapted and used in entirely different colonial systems. This paper will show that the Institut Colonial International encouraged the exchange of ideas about the various colonial experiences in order to create common and universal principles. International law and domestic law, or national law concerning land register systems and land law were part of the colonial discourse as it endeavoured to create and adopt universal principles of law, trying to establish a platform of common dialogue, with common premises, concerning different colonies, different colonial experiences and ultimately different cultural, social and political contexts.

Law and Customs : The Girl at the Confluence of Colonial Law and Family Customs in the 1920s and 30s

1923년 5월 3일자 매일신보에 실린 기사는 아버지의 빚을 갚기 위해 180원에 팔려간 16세 소녀의 이야기를 전하고 있다. 그녀는 법원이 이 거래를 불법으로 판결을 내리자 기적적으로 “반환”되었다. 1920년대 식민지 조선에서 신문매체가 활성화되면서 이러한 소녀들의 이야기가 뉴스에 넘쳐나기 시작했다. 이들은 소녀 (또는 딸)로 호칭되며 인신매매와 같은 범죄의 희생자로, 또는 스캔들이나 공공 기물 파손, 절도, 화재 등의 범인으로 묘사되었다. 선정적인 이야기들이 저널리즘 의 동력이 되어 그녀들을 타블로이드의 주제로 만들어 나간 것이다. 딸을 파는 것과 같은 오래된 관습과 그녀의 대중적 인지도를 높인 저널리즘의 사이에서 소 녀는 잠재적인 상속자로서 과부의 대안으로 법적 논쟁에도 언급되었다. 일본 민법 (1922-1923) 시행의 일환으로 식민지 정부가 제안한 딸의 상속권에 대한 논의 는 일본 당국에 의해 제기되었으나, 조선인들의 반대로 묻혀버렸다. 이 논문은 1920년대와 1930년대 식민지 조선사회의 소녀의 모습을 탐구한다. 식민지 법과 저널리즘에서 소녀가 어떻게 새롭게 호명되고 사회적 존재로 인정되는지, 그럼에 도 불구하고 여전히 타락과 폭력의 지속적인 관습에 종속되는지 살펴본다.

Review: Queering Colonial Natal: Indigeneity and the Violence of Belonging in Southern Africa, by T.J. Tallie

Review: <i>Queering Colonial Natal: Indigeneity and the Violence of Belonging in Southern Africa</i>, by T.J. Tallie

Legal Transplant to Decolonization in the Evolution of India’s Corporate Legislation

In India, most existing legislation resulted from a "legal transplant" that gradually occurred in colonial times. India is a common law country that follows the colonial pattern of law-making. Most of the legislation owes the British East India Company, including regulation of modern business corporations. This paper aimed to examine the history and formation of corporate legislation in India and its deviation from the legislation of the origin country, England. It pointed out the relevance of local conditions in India that led to a different approach to forming corporate law in India. The local conditions in India prevailed over the process of legal transplant. The social, economic, and political factors played a significant role in forming corporate law in India. To such an extent, India deviated from the English company laws and followed the trajectory of different jurisdictions. Using normative legal research, this paper is structured chronologically and progressively to trace the evolution of Indian corporate law. The central premise of the study is that India has strayed from colonial law and current legislation, and its development shows no evidence of strong dependence on English law and little evidence of following in the footsteps of India's colonial past. The economic liberalization and the SEBI Act 1992 simultaneously led to a new approach in corporate law, heavily under the US. The present Indian corporate law and the statutes revolving around it have departed from the transplanted law.&#x0D; KEYWORDS: Legal Transplant, Corporate Legislation, Company Law.

History Is Not Destiny: Colonial Compensation Litigation and South Korea–Japan Relations

AbstractRecent colonial compensation lawsuits reflect the metamorphosis of historical grievances in collective public memory into tort claims in private law. This article provides a synthetic view of the nexus of colonial law and history in South Korea–Japan relations, focusing on cross-border litigation brought by former forced laborers and victims of sexual servitude known as “comfort women” during World War II. The concept of public policy (ordre public) in Korea, which has colonial origins, has long served law courts as the standard for deciding the validity of a juristic act. But of late heavy reliance on the general clauses of law in legal proceedings has risked turning history and law into handmaids of national spirit, muddling historical accountability and legal liability. Improvement of South Korea–Japan ties should start from a more accurate understanding of colonial laws and a rounded appreciation of their shared legal history.

Colonial Law in India and the Victorian Imagination by Leila Neti

Reviewed by: Colonial Law in India and the Victorian Imagination by Leila Neti Lucky Issar (bio) Colonial Law in India and the Victorian Imagination by Leila Neti; pp. 302. Cambridge UP, 2021. $114.95 cloth. Indian resentment toward British colonial rule began to manifest in India in the middle of the nineteenth century, most notably with the 1857 mutiny by Indian soldiers, which spread across northern India. Following the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre in 1919 in which British soldiers fired on peaceful protesters, killing more than one thousand people including women and children, most Indians of all persuasions became fiercely [End Page 136] opposed to British rule. The poet Rabindranath Tagore returned his knighthood in protest. Anyone who questioned British rule was imprisoned on flimsy charges. However, there was not a time when Indian people did not in some form resist the British presence in India, and there was not a time when the British, especially as they became stronger, did not use anti-Indian narratives as well as military and legal means to strengthen their position, a strategy central to the colonial policies that Leila Neti examines in Colonial Law in India and the Victorian Imagination. Examining three important legal cases that came before the highest court in colonial India along with the works of prominent Victorian authors such as Charles Dickens, Philip Meadows Taylor, Wilkie Collins, and George Eliot, Neti's book focuses on how British laws and literary narratives worked in tandem to produce Indian subjects who were incapable of governing themselves, thus justifying continued British rule in India. The discourse on "thuggee" or "thugs" played a key role in enacting strict laws. The presence of thugs was not wholly a British fantasy, but the British exaggerated their numbers. Reading nineteenth-century literature and court cases, Neti demonstrates the tremendous energy the British put into creating the figure of the thug, essentially conflating it with all Indians. Not only did they use anti-thuggee laws to implement force against all those who acted against their interests; the British also convinced themselves of their superiority by constituting the inferior Indian, which legitimized their presence and gave them a reason to criminalize subcultures they did not understand. In addition to negative literary representations of Indians, the legal opinions of British lawmakers not only revealed what they thought about Indians but also exposed "their ability to reach back in time and reframe 'tradition' in order to influence how Indians would come to think of themselves" (20). The British also propagated the notion that thugs were motivated by biological reasons rather than political ones, a claim central to British popular and legal representations. In court proceedings, while the British courts claimed to be fair toward all, they handled Indian and British subjects differently. Moreover, at the same time that prison reforms were recommended in England, new harsher laws were introduced in India. Neti points out that this tendency of disparate treatment was also evident in literature. When dealing with English criminals, British authors narrated them in a way that ultimately rehabilitated them in society, whereas the treatment given to Indian criminals further augmented the nature of their criminality, emphasizing their inability to reform themselves, thus reinforcing the idea that Indians were not only incapable of governing themselves but were also innately corrupt. An important aspect of the book is its examination of nineteenth-century novels and legal cases to reveal how law and literary narratives emerged to produce knowledge that damaged Indians while strengthening colonial rule. [End Page 137] Through a major focus on Begum Sumroo, the ruler of Sardhana principality, and the case of her grandson, David Dyse, the book exposes British duplicity, but it also shows, by default, that British legal systems were not entirely to be summarily dismissed. The British authorities could have confiscated Begum Sumroo's properties, yet they were following legal procedures and were not completely fraudulent. Much later, Dyse too encountered property-related issues with the British. The court in English declared him insane, and although he later obtained a certificate in France attesting his sanity, the British court did not overturn its ruling. The British handling seemed dubious, but it could also be that...

After the Death Penalty

After the Death Penalty Mark Sanders (bio) LITERATURE AND THE REMAINS OF THE DEATH PENALTY BY PEGGY KAMUF New York: Fordham University Press, 2019 In 1995, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa declared the death penalty to be unconstitutional. The judgment and concurring opinions in State v. Makwanyane relied, along with other precedents, on Furman v. Georgia, the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case that, following a moratorium, brought about an end to executions in the United States, until Gregg v. Georgia opened the way four years later for their resumption under more restricted conditions. The South African justices find noteworthy Justice William Brennan's affirmation, in Furman, of human dignity as a value guiding his concurring opinion. A right to dignity is enshrined in South Africa's constitution (State v. Makwanyane, ¶¶ 57–58). In the judgment in Makwanyane, as well as in several of its concurring opinions, human dignity is connected to ubuntu—the idea that a person is a person through other people—an African ethics of reciprocity invoked in the epilogue of the 1993 interim South African constitution (State v. Makwanyane, ¶¶ 130–31, 223–27, 237–63, 307–13). This reference to ubuntu leads to an appeal to recognize "African law and legal thinking as a source of legal ideas, values and practice." It is then noted that, prior to the imposition of colonial law, although people suspected of witchcraft were sometimes summarily killed, and killings took place in the context of military discipline, this is not how murderers were punished: meaning that the equivalent of judicial killing was not practiced in precolonial southern Africa (State v. Makwanyane, ¶¶ 365–83). [End Page 177] Peggy Kamuf's Literature and the Remains of the Death Penalty comes out of the post-Gregg era, taking as its point of departure Jacques Derrida's 1999–2000 lectures on the death penalty, which it takes to be similarly situated (Kamuf, 1–2). As the translator of these lectures, the first of two series of lectures by Derrida on the subject, and as an editor of the English-language edition of Derrida's seminars (publication of which began in 2009), Kamuf brings a clear sense of the status of the text, which is based on Derrida's typescript but also incorporates his handwritten annotations and verbal additions preserved in recordings. Having translated this and many other works by Derrida, and having authored several studies on his thought, Kamuf is well placed to undertake the analysis proposed in her book. Although a special issue of the Southern Journal of Philosophy addressed Derrida's seminars on the death penalty in 2012, and a book on the seminars edited by Kelly Oliver and Stephanie Straub appeared in 2018 (both of which volumes Kamuf contributed to), Literature and the Remains of the Death Penalty is the first book-length study of them. Concentrating on remarks made in the lectures by Derrida about literature, which she sets out with great clarity, Kamuf proceeds to an analysis of works by various authors, with George Orwell, Robert Coover, Norman Mailer, and Charles Baudelaire as her principal foci. Derrida furnishes Kamuf with three main ideas. First, as Derrida hypothesizes in his first lecture, the "history of the institution named literature in Europe over the last three or four centuries is contemporary with and indissociable from a contestation of the death penalty." This "abolitionist struggle … tend[s] toward the worldwide as conjoined history, once again, of literature and rights, and of the right to literature" (Derrida 2014, 30; quoted in Kamuf, 19). As Kamuf shows, elsewhere Derrida defines this right as "its right to say everything. Literature thus ties its destiny to a certain noncensure, to the space of democratic freedom (freedom of the press, freedom of speech, etc.)" (Derrida 1995, 28; quoted in Kamuf, 19–20). Second, as Kamuf explains, for Derrida, "this right to say everything … is also the right to say nothing, or rather the right and even the obligation not to respond to a demand to know, to divulge the hidden or unapparent, to make public what is secret…. Literary fictions … figure a space of nonresponse to the demand to know and therefore a reserve...

PLURALISME HUKUM SEBAGAI MODEL PEMBANGUNAN HUKUM YANG BERKEADILAN

Legal diversity is evident in Indonesian criminal law, which is based on colonial law, and the existing social structures in the country. Furthermore, the 1945 Constitution specifies that as long as customary law groups exist, the state respects and preserves them and their historical rights. To accommodate written and unwritten conventions, diverse legal politics messo (intermediaries) implement macro-legal politics through various legislation. According to Agrarian Law, for example, there has been little recognition that customary law exists. The evolution of Indonesian law depends on recognizing and promoting the country's substantial plurality of legal systems.

PENGHIDUPAN KEMBALI PASAL TERHADAP PENGHINAAN PRESIDEN DAN WAKIL PRESIDEN DALAM RANCANGAN KITAB UNDANG-UNDANG HUKUM PIDANA

Law Number 1 of 1946 concerning of Criminal Law is an affirmation made by the government from the enactment of Colonial Law known as Wetboek van Strafrecht (WvS) or widely known as Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Pidana (KUHP). KUHP itself should be revised with the current condition of the Indonesia. However, the revision of Criminal Law within the draft of KUHP itself consist articles which cause conflict, one of which is the article about insult directed President and/or Vice President of the Indonesia. Wheres, this article is already removed by the Constitutional Court in 2006 under the statementNumber 013/022/PUU-IV/2006. The Governmment and House of Representatives seem to have disobeyed the statement of the Constitutional Court that makes the writer of this journal decides to take the revival of the article of insult to President and/Vice President as the background of the problem of a research. Further analysis will be carried out by the writer regarding the insult of President’s dignity and honor then analyze the policy of reactivating the said article about insult of the leader of the country in RKUHP by central government and House of Representatives. The said article is considered unconstitutional by Constitutional Court (MK) and has been objected to be a part of the RKUHP or articles with the same and similar contents. The process of the analysis will still use the reference from Constitutional Court’s decision and experts’ opinion. This reserach uses juridical normative approach which aim to discover rules and also norms to answer the legal issue being faced so that the solutions of the issue in this research can be made. In this case, the reactivation of the article of insult directed to the leader of the country in RKUHP is not the proper policy to be made because it has a tendency to be used as a tool to silent the people’s voice to criticize the performance of the President and/Vice President.

The Comic and the Absurd: On Colonial Law in Revolutionary Palestine

The Comic and the Absurd: On Colonial Law in Revolutionary Palestine

Fleet-footed Performers at the Edges of Colonial Law: Jack Johnson, Maud Allan and the Struggles of Cinema Censorship in British India

ABSTRACT This article explores the archival entanglements that brought together world-champion boxer Jack Johnson and world-famous dancer Maud Allan, with the legal and political history of cinema censorship in early twentieth century British India. Focusing on the battles waged to prevent these performers being viewed by Indian audiences, these episodes are situated within the wider context of developments in technology, economy and law in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Both famous stars in their own right, their expansive transnational reach presented a particular set of problems for colonial administrators tasked with managing the precarious relationship between race, gender and the imperial political order. Indicative of much more than exceptional moments, this article argues that these incidents were symptomatic of a series of changes within and beyond the British Empire which were pressuring the colonial state to reconsider the suitability of a legal architecture constructed for a nineteenth century world, and to imagine one that could meet the challenges of the twentieth century. As the article argues, the difficulties faced managing these two performances would expose the limits of the colonial state’s legal apparatus at this juncture, as well as the scope of its political imagination. When colonial lawmakers turned their hand to the radically novel challenge of the cinema, neither would be easily overcome.

5 Academic Activism and Living with Sedition in the 21st Century: Reflections from India

Abstract Academic activism has a long tradition in Indian higher education. Students across the universities actively participated in the Indian freedom movement and students and teachers were booked under the sedition1 law by the colonial government. Sedition law was brought by the colonial government to curb all the forms of protests by the people for independence, which has continued under the Indian penal code till today. Although India became free in 1947, colonial law exists and has been misused by the different consecutive governments in power over the seven decades. In recent years, universities have become the site of conflicts in India due to the continuous suppression of the voices of students and academics. There has been an increase in the diversity of the students and faculties from underrepresented groups in the university spaces and so new forms of questions are being asked with respect to discriminatory practices based on caste, class, gender and other markers of identity. Academic freedom as well as academic activism have been questioned by the dominant ruling groups. The suicide of doctoral student Rohith Vemula at the University of Hyderabad and the arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) President Kanhaiya Kumar with other students have created new debates in Indian higher education about the importance of academic freedom and the role of academic activism in reviving the idea of a university as well democracy in the production of knowledge and fight against existing inequality, exclusion and injustices in the campuses as well as in the Indian society. Academic activism is deeply rooted within the idea of democracy and universities are the sites of critical consciousness. The present study uses primary as well secondary sources in understanding the idea of academic activism in Indian higher education in the 21st century. For the primary sources, the researcher interviews two former JNU scholars charged under the sedition law as well the academic activists in higher education in India. The study finds that protests against the closure of common fellowship in higher education as well as protests against the privatisation of higher education in the form of an increase in fees in public universities have revived the academic activism in Indian higher education. The study also finds that the demands for higher education as a common good by the academicians and students in public universities has sort of unsettled the neoliberal idea of universities. Academic freedom and academic activism need to be protected for the production of knowledge in higher education and as a global common good for a just and equitable society.

Domination of Colonial Law1 in The Middle of Indonesian Moslem Society

This short article intends to explain the major problems faced by Indonesia since been colonized by a foreign nation (in this case mainly the Netherlands) for three and a half centuries with all its consequences, namely the existence of foreign law until now in Indonesia, including the influence of European culture in the life of people who are predominantly muslim with the traditions and culture of course different from the tradition and culture of the colonial. Circumstances should be terminated immediately it can certainly be felt by everyone that upholds and respects the religious laws adopted by the muslim majority of Indonesia’s population. After 70 years of Indonesian independent, largely of colonial law is still exist in the entire territory of Indonesia. Indonesian people seemed no longer care about these issues, or at least only a small part of Indonesian society are seriously thinking about it. And for a great nation like Indonesia should the laws of society are in accordance with the community’s culture, and culture is a culture that is supposed to be created/built on the majority religion in this country embraced the religion of Islam. So, it can be said that the law should be the law of Indonesia are built on the teachings and culture of Islam, but the reality showed that the laws of the Dutch Law such as ‘Wetboek van Straftrecht’, ‘Burgerlijk Wetboek’ and ‘Wetboek van Koophandel’ are still apply today

The Forgotten Liberal Social Reform? Marriage with a Deceased Wife’s Sister, Political Nonconformity and the New Liberalism in Edwardian Britain

Abstract This article examines why Victorian Britain’s longest-running political controversy—the sixty-four-year campaign to legalise marriage between a widower and his deceased wife’s sister—was finally resolved in 1907. It explores why the Liberal government decided to support reform, what strategies it adopted and how it was able to force a deceased wife’s sister bill through an intransigent House of Lords that had, for more than half a century, succeeded in blocking similar bills. The article recognises that a multitude of factors—social, theological, imperial and legal—shaped opinion on the issue. Nonetheless, it argues that the Liberal government’s backing for marriage with a deceased wife’s sister (MDWS) should be viewed, in terms of its hegemonic public presentation, as the forgotten Liberal social reform. In keeping with the emerging New Liberalism, MDWS was packaged primarily as a social relief measure that spoke to the Liberal Party’s growing interest in the poor, child welfare, social justice, women’s rights and state support for workers. The commitment to easing the plight of those affected by the existing prohibition was real, but behind the public rhetoric lay a desire to stem nonconformist discontent among the Liberal Party’s electoral base, and an evolving constitutional crisis between the houses of parliament which gave the issue greater symbolic significance. For many peers, reform had become more than just palatable or desirable. It was necessary in the light of a change in colonial marriage law that had sought to address colonial grievances, promote imperial unity and better safeguard inherited wealth and social status.