ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the polarizing debate over colonial representation and the inclusion of indigenous judges on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) as it played out both in London and Britain's African colonies. For many nationalist politicians in British colonies in Africa, executive, legislative and judicial sovereignty were inextricably interlinked. Delinking from the JCPC was therefore seen as a key step in the assertion of independence and sovereignty. By the 1920s, the question of colonial appeals to the JCPC had become a key issue in British imperial politics. Dominion politicians drew attention to key procedural differences between the judicial work of the House of Lords and the Privy Council. The right of appeal to a court located overseas, made up mostly of English judges who were sometimes considered out of tune with local law and values, and was a sore point in the colonies even at the height of imperial power.
