Geoffrey Bindman recalls the injustice doled out to the victims of colonialism
The Chagos islanders have fought for years through the English courts to recover their right to live in their homeland, expropriated by their British colonial government to be used as a US airbase. Their efforts ended recently in a ruling by the House of Lords declining jurisdiction to right this longstanding injustice. It should not have been a surprise. Our courts have long denied redress to the victims of colonialism.
Constitutional ties
In 1982 I took a sabbatical and spent several months in California teaching at UCLA. Before I left London I had placed all my files in the hands of trusted colleagues but I continued to follow the progress of a few particularly interesting cases. Before my departure I had received instructions from the Saskatchewan Indians. They were concerned about a proposal to sever Canadian constitutional ties with the UK. Notwithstanding the establishment of Canada and the other Dominions as independent nation-states, there had survived after the Statute of Westminster
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