Mongrel Laws or Model Code? The Antecedents of the Penal Code of Seychelles

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Published date: 16 August 2019
• Date: 16 August 2019
• Author: Mathilda Twomey
• Pages: 40-63
• Citation: (2015) 2(2) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 40

MONGREL LAWS OR MODEL CODE?

THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE PENAL CODE

OF SEYCHELLES

MATHILDATWOMEY*

Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Seychelles, Irish Research Scholar and James

Hardiman Scholar, National University of Ireland, Galway

‘Model – Athing used as an example to follow or imitate,

A person or thing regarded as an excellent example of a specif‌ied quality.

Mongrel – Adog of no def‌inable type or breed.

Any animal resulting from the crossing of different breeds or types.’

1

This article considers the transfer and reception of two supposedly diametrically opposed

criminal law regimes in Seychelles during its colonisation f‌irst by the French and

subsequently by the British. An Order in Council in 1831 had proclaimed that despite

the terms of Capitulation by the French to the British, the French Civil and Commercial

Codes would be preserved but that English criminal law would henceforth be applied.

However, until 1954 a patchwork of criminal laws obtained; these were described by

British administrators as a ‘Russian salad’ or ‘mongrel laws’. In replacing this hybrid

regime, the British advocated what they considered to be an appropriate (‘Model’) Penal

Code for the colony. Ironically, this new Code itself had a peculiar legal hybridity with a

strange itinerary, having already crossedthree continents and was fashioned from imperial

codes in East Africa, Nyasaland, Nigeria, Queensland, Italy, France; all perhaps

ultimately drawing from Bentham’s Pannomion.

Keywords: criminal law, penal code, model code, colonial administrations

[Cet article considère le transfert et la réception de deux régimes criminels considérés

diamétralement opposés aux Seychelles au cours de sa première colonisation par les

Français et par la suite par les Anglais. Un Order in Council du 1831 avait proclamé

que, malgré les conditions de la Capitulation des Français par les Britanniques, les Codes

Civil et de Commerce françaises seraient préservés, mais que le droit pénal anglais serait

désormais appliqué. Cependant, jusqu’au 1954, le résultat obtenu a été un patchwork de

lois pénales; ceux-ci ont été décrits par les administrateurs britanniques comme une

«salade russe» ou «lois des bâtards.» En remplacement de ce régime hybride, les

Britanniques ont préconisé ce qu’ils considéraient être un Code pénal approprié

(«modèle») pour la colonie. Ironiquement, ce nouveau Code lui-même avait une hybridité

juridique particulier avec un étrange itinéraire, ayant déjà traversé troiscontinents et ayant

été développé à partir de codes impériaux en Afrique de l’Est, le Nyassaland, le Nigeria,

le Queensland, l’Italie, la France; en f‌in tout peut-être résultat du Pannomion de

Bentham.]

* This paper draws on my PhD research, which is being supervised by Marie

McGonagle (National University of Ireland, Galway) and Seán Patrick Donlan

(University of Limerick, Ireland).

1

Oxford English Dictionary, available at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/

def‌inition/english/ (last accessed on 30 March 2015).

40

(2015) 2(2) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 40

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Mots clés: deux régimes criminels; Codes Civil et de Commerce

françaises; droit pénal anglais; hybridité juridique; code

modèle

Introduction

In 1952, the tiny, far-f‌lung British island colony of Seychelles saw the

enactment of a Model Code. That Code had been drafted by Albert

Ehrhardt

2

at the request of the Colonial Off‌ice and was imposed on British

colonies and territories across Africa in a bid to uniformise their criminal legal

systems and to render their administration easier. The Code, however, was

resisted by the island’s LegislativeAssembly and it took two attempts to get it

passed.

This article brief‌ly explores the criminal law regime that obtained during

the two colonial administrations until the enactment of the new Code in

1952. The antecedents of the Code and diff‌iculties with its enactment are

examined as is the participation in the codif‌ication project by draftsmen and

reformists on the African continent and in Australia and Europe. The

journey of the Code is tracked across Nyasaland and East Africa, Nigeria,

Queensland and its inspiration from Italy, France and ultimately Britain. The

expedition reveals that, in general, the Criminal and Penal Codes of the late

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have a lot in common and

unsurprisingly their authors — Ehrhardt, Griff‌ith, Zanardelli, Macaulay,

Livingston, Field Wright and Stephen — all acknowledge deriving some of

their inspiration from Bentham’s Pannomion.

3

Part I of the article begins in Seychelles and surveys the f‌irst criminal laws

of the islands; the promises made by the British to the French on the

capitulation of the islands to them in 1811; and the local protagonists

involved in the reform of the criminal law, including Seychelles’ f‌irst black

barrister, Charles Collet. Part II examines in more detail the diff‌iculties in

moving from the ‘mongrel’ laws of Seychelles to a modern and Model Code

in the middle of the twentieth century. Part III explores the inception and

trajectory of the Model Code in colonial Africa, while part IV analyses

Griff‌ith’s codif‌ication project in Queensland, Australia, and his acknowledg-

ment of the work of Zanardelli. Part V brief‌ly explores the links between

Zanardelli’s Code of 1889 with the French Penal Code of 1810. Part VI

concludes by scanning the web-like connections of Penal Codes in general.

IFromancien régime laws to a revolutionary code

The enactment of the Penal Code of Seychelles in 1952 was not without

resistance. Moves by the Seychelles’ Governor, Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke,

2

Albert Ehrhardt (1862–1929) held various posts in the British colonial service,

including judge in the East African Protectorate in 1914. See Henry Francis & James

S Reed Indirect Rule and the Search for Justice: Essays in East African Legal History (1972)

35.

3

Jeremy Bentham proposed a Pannomion, a complete utilitarian code of law.See

John Bowring (ed) The Worksof Jeremy Bentham, VolumeI (1838–1843).

MONGREL LAWS OR MODEL CODE? 41

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