ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the workings of colonial dual legal orders by reference to British overseas intervention in proto-Malaysia. The nature of relations varied according to time and place. Prior to British rule, the proto-Malaysian territories were subject to overseas rule by the Portuguese and Dutch. The chapter provides a general excursion into the nature of colonial period sovereignty with illustrative examples. It elaborates the formal legal distinction between foreign and local rule. In The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa, Baron Frederick John Dealtry Lugard argued that 'Europe is in Africa for the mutual benefit of her own industrial classes and the native races in their progress to a higher plane'. Jurisdictional extension depended upon successful management of internal matters and relations with external political communities. In proto-Malaysia, the movement to abolish slavery is both an instance of the civilizing mission of the British and illustrative of the composite nature of customary law.
