Sir Fortunatus Dwarris (1786–1860) was an English barrister, civil servant and abolitionist. After graduating from University College, Oxford, in 1808 he was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1811. In 1823 Dwarris was appointed a commissioner for an Imperial Commission of Inquiry on the state of legal and slave codes of the self-governing colonies of the British West Indies. This detailed volume, first published in 1827, contains three reports summarising the Commission's findings and recommendations. Focusing on the islands of Barbados, Tobago, Dominica, and Antigua, this volume provides a detailed analysis of the various criminal and civil laws peculiar to each island, together with a description of the various courts and processes in each. The commissioners perceptively discuss and illustrate the institutionalised racism of these laws, providing valuable information for the study of slavery and emancipation and the legal history of the British West Indies.
