Decolonising justice : a history of the High Court of Tanganyika, c. 1920-1971

• Main Author: Feingold, Ellen
• Published: University of Oxford 2012
• Subjects: 347.6782025
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.573819

This dissertation examines the history of a British colonial high court, the High Court of Tanganyika, and the process through which it became integrated into the post-colonial Tanganyikan state and recognised as a national institution. It traces the history of the High Court of Tanganyika from its establishment in 1920 to the completion of the post- colonial government's efforts to decolonise it in 1971. The dissertation follows two main lines of inquiry. The first analyses the roles the High Court played in the context of indirect rule in Tanganyika and how its relationship to the administration and other courts was affected by changes in British rule of the territory over the forty year period. As twentieth century British colonial judges have been mostly overlooked in studies of colonial administration, this analysis of Tanganyika's High Court is underpinned by an examination of the broader British Colonial Legal Service, which staffed colonial benches across the British Empire. The second line of inquiry aims to explain how Tanganyika's post-colonial government perceived and altered the colonial High Court after independence to make it into a national institution. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that the High Court's roles in the colonial state and position relative to the administration reinforced administrative authority over Africans. Africans were prevented from accessing the High Court and participating in the administration of justice outside the Native Courts. After the end of British rule, Tanganyika's post-colonial government decolonised the High Court by modifying its relationship to the executive and lower courts in order to increase Africans' access to it and by appointing Africans to its Bench to replace the colonial judiciary. The original approach employed in this study connects the history of British colonial legal systems, colonial administration, and decolonisation, providing a means for assessing how other colonial high courts developed and decolonised.