CONFIDENTIAL
Three legal systems co-existed within the Sudan:
6.
(a)
(b)
(c)
a modern system of codified laws, based on those of British India and enacted by the Governor- General (Art. IV of the Convention).
Islamic laws relating to questions of personnel status (marriage, divorce and inheritance) which were applicable to Moslems only.
Tribal laws, similarly applicable only to the tribal groups.
The operation of the Islamic and tribal laws (which were not mentioned in the Convention) was subject to general super- vision by the Sudan Government. As far as has been traced, there was no provision for any appeal to judicial bodies out- side the Sudan. The Convention explicitly excluded the Sudan from the jurisdiction of the Mixed Courts operating in Egypt and stipulated that no Egyptian laws applied to the Sudan unless by proclamation of the Governor-General.
Later developments
7.
The status of the Sudan remained a contentious issue between the British and Egyptian Governments until the 1950s. Under the Declaration of Egyptian Independence, promulgated by Britain in 1922, Sudan was one of the "reserved points' ie unsettled issues reserved to the discretion of the British Government pending the conclusion of negotiated agreements. In 1923 Britain made representations to dissuade the Egyptian Government from including a reference to the King of Egypt as "sovereign" of the Sudan in the new Egyptian Constitution. The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 stated that it did not prejudice the question of sovereignty over the Sudan.
8.
In 1951 the Egyptian Government (under King Farouk) abrogated both the 1899 Convention and the 1936 Treaty and unilaterally announced a Constitution for the Sudan. This action was however rejected both by Britain and by the British- controlled government in Khartoum. Following the Egyptian revolution of July 1952, an agreement was concluded between Britain and the new Egyptian Government in February 1953, which provided for a three-year transitional period leading to self- determination for the Sudan.
Research Department
15 April 1983
CONFIDENTIAL