Law of Vanuatu

Law in the Republic of Vanuatu consists of a mixed system combining the legacy of English common law, French civil law and indigenous customary law. The Parliament of Vanuatu is the primary law-making body today, but pre-independence French and British statutes, English common law principles and indigenous custom all enjoy constitutional and judicial recognition to some extent.

Vanuatu did not exist as a politically, judicially or even conceptually unified entity prior to its being named the "New Hebrides" by James Cook in 1774, and subsequently its joint colonisation by France and the United Kingdom in 1906. The French and British established a Condominium, whereby separate but coexisting French and British colonial authorities would administer their own settlers, as well as settlers of other nationalities who placed themselves under the jurisdiction of either administration. Joint regulations were also issued, some of which affecting the indigenous inhabitants. For the most part, however, indigenous Neo-Hebrideans simply remained outside the jurisdiction of colonial administration, which de facto considered that indigenous custom was sufficient to regulate the "native" societies, albeit without granting custom any official recognition. In addition to specific colonial regulations issued by the British High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, the British Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides, and the French High Commissioner of the Pacific, as well as joint condominial regulations, applicable law in the colonial New Hebrides included Acts of the French Parliament stated to apply to the New Hebrides, or to French colonial territories generally, Acts of the British Parliament stated or deemed to apply to the colonies, and "English rules of common law and equity", all except where inappropriate to the specific circumstances of the New Hebrides.

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