Mr. Mothercountry: the man who made the rule of law

Abstract

European colonial powers delivered a system of law to their possessions; this book examines the legal legacies from this practice that remain intact today. Despite the claims that the white man's burden included transfer of the rule of law to less-enlightened countries, the number of people who were involved in legal administration for the British Empire was small. In fact, the legal footprint of the British Empire was primarily made by one family. Sir James Stephen, known as Mr Mothercountry, oversaw the British Empire's colonial laws for 30 years. A committed abolitionist who believed that the rule of law could be deployed for the protection of the most dispossessed subjects of the Crown, he fought a losing battle for a more robust interpretation of the rule of law in the context of colonialism.