Sally Frances Low, "Colonial Law Making: Cambodia Under the French" (NUS Press, 2023)
In 1863 the French established a protectorate over the kingdom of Cambodia. The protectorate, along with Vietnam and Laos, later became part of the colonial state of French Indochina. Part of the French \u2018civilizing mission\u2019 in Cambodia involved reforming Cambodian law and legal processes.\xa0\nSally Low\u2019s pioneering study,\xa0Colonial Law Making: Cambodia under the French\xa0(NUS Press, 2023), tells the story of the encounter between what she calls two different legal and social \u2018cosmologies\u2019: Cambodia\u2019s indigenous legal tradition and modern French legal thinking. While the French claimed they were modernizing Cambodian law, in fact they imposed many elements of French law. Initially, they dispossessed the king of much of his judicial authority. But ironically, the French reform of Cambodian law retained the monarchy as the semi-divine source of law, and royal power was subsequently legally embedded into new national institutions, the law, and the constitutions. At independence in 1953, 90 years after the French began their protectorate, Cambodia\u2019s King Sihanouk inherited this legal apparatus which had done so much to enhance the power of the executive over the judiciary.\n\ufeffPatrick Jory teaches Southeast Asian History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland. He can be reached at: p.jory@uq.edu.au.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law