The English Colonial Law-Making for Heligoland – »Ordinances of Heligoland«

Including a Review of the Book »Helgoland« by Jan Rüger

Abstract

The contribution deals with a widely unknown and formerly inaccessible part of English colonial law-making: the small body of legal rules for the colony of Heligoland (1807–1890). Even though Heligoland was a very small and rather insignificant colony, the ordinances are interesting for three reasons: the indulgent treatment of the local population (given that Heligoland was one of the very few European colonies of the empire), the geographical vicinity of German-speaking territories, and in particular, the emerging German Empire after 1871. All of these are reflected in the application of foreign (German) laws (strand laws, monetary laws, metric rules) to the colony. This made Heligoland a unique case compared to other colonies.
The contribution provides an overview of the pre-history of the introduction of the ordinances (1807–1863), and it explains the why, whence and whither of the 76 ordinances that were passed between 1864 and 1889. It is completed by a chronological list of the ordinances.