the Supreme Court of the Island of Ceylon, published at Paris in 1839, furnishes a conspectus of the Law of the Colony as it existed in the first half of the last century.
For British Guiana no text-book exists.
Reception of the English Law in the Roman-Dutch Colonies;
The reader who may use this book, or one of the older text-books mentioned in the preceding pages, as an introduction to his study of the modern law in one or other of the Roman-Dutch Colonies must bear in mind that just as the Roman-Dutch law of Holland was a complex system drawn from different sources, so the law of every one of these Colonies, Roman-Dutch in origin, has been affected in almost every department by the encroaching influences of English Law. the result of
(a) express enactment, This has been the result partly of express enactment, partly of judicial decisions, partly of tacit acceptance.
As examples of statutory introduction of the law of England, mention may be made of the Ceylon Ordinance No. 5 of 1852, which enacts that the law of England is to be observed in maritime matters and in respect of all contracts and questions relating to bills of exchange, promissory notes, and cheques; and of the Ceylon Ordinance No. 22 of 1866, which makes similar provisions with respect to the law of partnerships, joint-stock companies, corporations, banks and banking, principals and agents, carriers by land, life and fire insurance.
In British Guiana by Ordinance No. 6 of 1864, s. 3, ‘all questions relating to the following matters, namely ships, and the property therein, and the owners thereof, and the behaviour of the master and mariners and their respective rights, duties, and liabilities as regards the carriage of passengers and goods by ships; stoppage in transitu; freight; demurrage; insurance; salvage; average; collision between ships; bills of lading; and all rights, liabilities, claims, contracts, and matters arising in respect of any ship, or any such question as aforesaid, shall be adjudged, determined, construed, and enforced according to the Law of England applicable to such or the like case.’ By Ordinance No. 3 of 1909 the law of England for the time being was made the law of the Colony in relation to life and fire insurance.
