Evaluation of Factors Compelling British to Introduce Colonial and Imperial Laws in Their Dependences in South Pacific Islands: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The European arrival in the South Pacific Islands brought a long-lasting impact on its legal system. The fourth quarter of the nineteenth century (the 1870s-1900) is considered a crucial period in determining the relevance of pre-colonial South Pacific Island nation’s laws and the implication of imperial or colonial laws by the European colonizers, including Britain, Germany, and France. This transition period had predominant options of continuing the pre-existing traditional laws and commencing the introduced and colonial laws or a mixture of both. The British’s dependencies noticed the change in laws as the governance was done directly and indirectly in various dependencies based on their requirement. The article systematically reviews the factors that led to the change in pre-colonial laws in some British colonies of the South Pacific Islands. Based on the study of secondary sources, it can be asserted that the factors that pushed the British to make necessary legal changes to establish their governance included: having administrative compulsion, establishing authenticity and legitimacy, supporting their political and commercial motives, and other motivating factors. The colonial legacy of laws prevailed to establish ‘legal pluralism’ and led to a legal debate over patriate laws in the South Pacific.