STATUTE LAW REVISION: SIXTEENTH ... - Law Commission

8.4, these “existing slave trade treaties” are all now obsolete. The Act’s
provisions are outlined in the following paragraphs in that light.
8.2 Sections 3-4 deal with seizure of slave ships. Section 3 provides for the visitation
and seizure of suspected slave ships by commanders of British naval vessels
and by commanders of foreign vessels in pursuance of existing slave trade
treaties. It provides also for the seizure and detention of vessels subject to
forfeiture under sections 3 and 4 of the Slave Trade Act 1824, which are
proposed for repeal (paragraph 8.9). Retention of parts of section 3, and of
section 17, is necessary as the statutory authority for, and also protection of,
British warships boarding suspected foreign slave trade ships, as provided by the
Law of the Sea Convention referred to in paragraph 8.6, and to bring offenders to
justice, as required by the other Conventions referred to in that paragraph. The
repeal proposals make provision accordingly in relation to these sections.
Section 4 provides for vessels found with the equipment specified in Schedule 1
on board to be deemed to be engaged in the slave trade unless the contrary is
proved. The list of equipment reflects the provisions of existing slave trade
treaties and includes such items as shackles, bolts, handcuffs, cooking vessels
of unusual size and large quantities of various foodstuffs. Section 4 and
Schedule 1 are obsolete both because existing slave trade treaties are obsolete
and because the deemed characteristics of slave vessels in the Victorian era set
out in Schedule 1 now appear anachronistic and unlikely to be encountered
today either singly or in combination.
8.3 Sections 5 to 8 deal with the courts and their jurisdiction to adjudicate on and
condemn slave vessels and their contents. Section 5 gives jurisdiction to the
High Court and every Colonial Court of Admiralty 26 to try and condemn slave
vessels, slaves and goods seized under section 3, and to order their forfeiture or
restoration. The whole apparatus established by section 5 is obsolete and
unnecessary; it has apparently not been used for at least one hundred years and
the very concept of adjudicating in the property in slaves is a measure of its
obsolescent character. In the event of any proceedings being taken today in
respect of slave vessels and goods, those proceedings would, in pursuance of
the United Kingdom’s international obligations, be purely criminal in character
and in that event, as has been noted above (paragraph 8.9), the courts here
would have all the powers of criminal courts to order deprivation or confiscation
of the property in question in the appropriate cases.
8.4 Section 6 provides for proceedings to be taken in the name of the Crown where
vessels or slaves are brought in by the commander of a foreign ship for
adjudication by a British slave court. 27 By virtue of section 3, such commanders
were empowered so to act only in pursuance of existing slave trade treaties;
since these are all now obsolete, so also is section 6. Sections 7 and 8 provided
for appointment etc of judges to mixed courts, the functions of which are referred
to in paragraph 8.3, and for treaty regulations as to the courts’ powers to have
effect. The treaties in question are obsolete and, in any event, of those which
26 See para 8. 23 and n.34 below.
27 By s 2 a “slave court” means every British slave court, mixed commission or court of a
foreign state with jurisdiction in slave trade matters; a “British slave court” means the High
Court and all Colonial Courts of Admiralty; see para 8.23.
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