INTRODUCTION OF LAW OF ENGLAND

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Civil Law Ordinance.

2. The law to be hereafter administered in Ceylon in respect of all contracts or questions arising within the same relating to ships and to the property therein, and to the owners thereof, the behaviour of the master and mariners, and their respective rights, duties, and liabilities, relating to the carriage of passengers and goods by ships, to stoppage in transitu, to freight, demurrage, insurance, salvage, average, collision between ships, to bills of lading, and generally to all maritime matters, shall be the same in respect of the said matters as would be administered in England in the like case at the corresponding period, if the contract had been entered into or if the act in respect of which any such question shall have arisen had been done in England, unless in any case other provision is or shall be made by any enactment now in force in Ceylon or hereafter to be enacted.

3. In all questions or issues which may hereafter arise or which may have to be decided in Ceylon with respect to the law of partnerships, corporations, banks and banking, principals and agents, carriers by land, life and fire insurance, the law to be administered shall be the same as would be administered in England in the like case, at the corresponding period, if such question or issue had arisen or had to be decided in England, unless in any case other provision is or shall be made by any enactment now in force in Ceylon or hereafter to be enacted :

Provided that nothing herein contained shall be taken to introduce into Ceylon any part of the Law of England relating to the tenure or conveyance, or assurance of, or succession to, any land or other immovable property, or any estate, right, or interest therein.

4. All questions, whether arising before or after the passing of this Ordinance, which relate to the effect of war upon legal rights, remedies, immunities, duties, liabilities, and obligations, shall be determined in accordance with the law by which such questions would for the time being be determined in England.

5. Provided that no person shall be prevented from recovering on any contract or engagement any amount of interest expressly reserved thereby or from recovering interest at the rate of twelve per centum per annum on any contract or engagement, in any case in which interest is payable by law and no different rate of interest has been specially agreed upon between the parties, but the amount recoverable on account of interest or arrears of interest shall in no case exceed the principal.

6. Provided further, that nothing in the preceding sections contained shall alter or affect the law in regard to any question arising for adjudication within Ceylon upon a contract made abroad, which question shall be determined as if this Ordinance had not been enacted.

7. Where there is no Kandyan law or custom having the force of law applicable to the decision of any matter or question arising for adjudication within the Kandyan provinces, for the decision of which other provision is not herein specially made, the court shall in any such case have recourse to the law as to the like matter or question in force within the Maritime provinces, which is hereby declared to be the law for the determination of such matter or question.

8. No marriage contracted between persons commonly known as Europeans or their descendants, or persons commonly known as Burghers, or between any such persons and any Sinhalese (whether of the Maritime or Kandyan provinces), or any Asiatic within the Kandyan provinces, shall be valid unless such marriage would have been valid if contracted within the Maritime provinces.

9. *[Repealed so far as inconsistent with Ordinance No. 15 of 1876.] The inheritance and succession to the real property situated within the Kandyan provinces of persons commonly known as Europeans and of their descendants, and of persons commonly known as Burghers, who may die possessed of or entitled to any such property, and without disposing of the same by will, and the inheritance and succession to the personal property of such persons who at the time of their death shall be domiciled within the Kandyan provinces, and who may die possessed of or entitled to any such property, and without disposing of the same by will, shall be regulated and determined in such manner and according to such laws and usages as would have been the case had such real property been situated, or had the deceased been domiciled at the time of his death, within the Maritime provinces, anything contained in section 8 of the Wills Ordinance to the contrary notwithstanding.

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