Book reviews

British Overseas Territory Law

2nd edition

Ian Hendry and Susan Dickson

PUBLISHER: HART PUBLISHING
ISBN: 978-1509918706
PRICE: £95

The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 saw Gibraltar ceded to Great Britain by the Kingdom of Spain. Over 300 years later, the legal position of that important British Overseas Territory has been brought sharply into focus. Judicial cooperation in criminal matters between the UK and Gibraltar requires the use of the same documents as with all EU member states. Yet those resident in Gibraltar are UK nationals and voted in the referendum of June 2016. However, Gibraltar has a distinct legal status from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

These issues are not without importance. In Christian v R [2007] 2 AC 400, the key question before the Privy Council was whether the laws of England on the crimes of rape and incest had been incorporated into the domestic law of Pitcairn through the established status of the islands.

This excellent, clearly written and accessible book provides the answers one needs on all aspects of these territories, whether financial arrangements, courts, judicial independence and tenure, or security and defence. In numerous paragraphs the authors open with a simple question which they then answer with clarity.

This may be viewed as a book within a narrow field of constitutional law. Maybe so. Consider, however, how often recently issues of status or nationality of those from the wider UK territories have become an important issue.