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IOWA LAW REVIEW
to the Gold Coast or adopted by the Gold Coast legislature after July
24, 1874 and Orders in Council applying to that territory; (3) colonial
legislation enacted by the Gold Coast legislature; and (4) legislation
by the Parliament of Ghana. 5 3 English law, however, is applicable
only so far as local circumstances permit, and it is applied subject to
such modifications as are necessary to render it suitable to local circumstances.1
4 In the Sudan, it is provided that the laws in force before
the Constitution remain valid unless replaced by Parliament or
other competent authority. 5 5 This is generally the approach that has
been taken in the other African states that were formerly British
colonies. 5
In the French colonies, French codes were imposed and provided a
droit commun throughout French West Africa and French Equatorial
Africa. 5 7 Again, after independence these codes served as the main
body of law. While countries such as Senegal" and the Ivory Coast59 have enacted or are in process of enacting new codes, these codes will
follow the civilian approach, 60 [Vol. 53
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and in the former French colonies the
main body of law will consist of comprehensive codes as before.
The pattern, then, has been for a new state to retain the main body
of law that existed before independence. This appears to be a universal
phenomenon. In North America, states like Louisiana and Quebec,
which were under French rule, still employ codes as the primary
basis of their law. Former British colonies throughout the world,
such as the rest of Canada, Australia, India, and Pakistan, have retained
the common law. This is understandable and generally desirable.
the courts of Nigeria. However, the "unexpressed consciousness of legal training
and affinity," to which Professor Guttnan refers, appears to have caused most
African judges to treat English decisions with great reverence. Irrespective of
whether the phrase "common law" refers to the common law as it existed at the
date of reception or not, the English common law as pronounced by the latest
decision of an English court will be the common law applied by most of the courts
in Anglophonic Africa.
53 AALLoT, supra note 46, at 206. See also Harvey, The Evolution of Ghana
Law Since Independence, 27 L. & CoNrT=. PROB. 581, 594-96 (1962).
G4 A ALLorr, supra note 46, at 206.
U5 GuTnmN, supra note 48, at 417.
5F For a discussion of the applicable law in each of the former British colonies,
see A. ALLOrS, JUDIcIAL A LEGAL SYsTmis n AFRca (1962).
5
7 See Farnsworth, Law Reform in a Developing Country: A New Code of Obligations
for Senegal, 8 J. AmT. L. 6, 7 (1964). For a general discussion of the legal
systems of the French colonies during the colonial period, see Pageard, La
rforme des juridictions coutumi6res et musulmanes dan les noveaus etats de
l'Ouest africain, 1963 REcUEa PENAsrT 462, 463-66 (J. Topping transl 1963).
58
Farnsworth, supra note 57.
5
9 Pageard, supra note 57, at 479.
00 The Senegalese code is largely inspired by French law and employs the style
and terminology of the French code. Farnsworth, supra note 57, at 10.