Law & constitutions

An editorial selection for comparing processes, events, and lives. The interval and counts describe selected records, not the historical boundaries or importance of the subject.

Canonical records: 186
Events: 99
People: 10
Processes and periods: 77

Compare in the atlas Selection criteria and limits

Topics represented

British Empire (107) · Law & constitutions (76) · Law & imperial government (61) · Resistance & colonized agency (58) · Colonization & sovereignty (47) · Decolonization & independence (33) · Slavery & coerced labor (24) · Indigenous peoples & dispossession (23) · War & conquest (22) · Self-government & Commonwealth (21) · Companies, trade & extraction (17) · Memory, reparation & restitution (15)

View distribution by region and period

Canonical records by regional label and start date. These are numerical analysis bins, not universal historical periods. A multi-region record appears in multiple rows; do not add rows as a unique-record total.
Region	3000–1 BCE	1–1499	1500–1799	1800–1899	1900–1999	Since 2000
Africa	1	3	3	14	16	5
Americas	0	2	22	18	7	5
Asia	11	8	4	14	19	1
Europe	3	21	31	14	11	7
Oceania	0	0	2	5	5	1
Global / no specific region	0	0	1	1	9	5

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

2019
The ICJ finds Mauritius’s decolonization incomplete
In an advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice found that Chagos’s 1965 separation was not based on free and genuine expression and that the UK should end its administration as rapidly as possible. The General Assembly endorsed that conclusion by a large majority and requested withdrawal within six months; the opinion was authoritative but advisory, and the UK did not meet that deadline
2021
Barbados replaces the monarch with a president
On the 55th anniversary of independence, Sandra Mason became the first president and Barbados ceased to be a Commonwealth realm while remaining in the organization. The change, advanced by Mia Mottley’s government, renewed Caribbean debates about monarchy, sovereignty, and colonial repair
2021–2026
British institutions transfer and return Benin heritage
Jesus College returned a bronze cockerel in 2021, and the Horniman transferred title to 72 objects to Nigeria in 2022, physically returning some and agreeing loans for others. In 2026 Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology announced title transfer of 116 objects. Legal title, physical return, and renewable loan must be recorded separately
2022
The law opens citizenship to Chagossian descendants
The Nationality and Borders Act added fee-free registration routes for descendants of people born in the British Indian Ocean Territory. The measure addressed intergenerational exclusion, but citizenship is not a right of return and does not resolve sovereignty, resettlement, or reparation
2025–2026
UK and Mauritius sign a treaty subject to entry into force
The 22 May 2025 treaty would recognize Mauritian sovereignty over Chagos and lease Diego Garcia to the UK for 99 years once in force, with resettlement provisions excluding Diego Garcia. The UK implementation bill fell at the close of the parliamentary session on 29 April 2026. As of 1 September 2026, this dossier does not state that transfer occurred or that the treaty entered into force
2026
A treaty regulates Gibraltar’s border after Brexit
The United Kingdom and European Union signed a treaty on 14 July to facilitate movement of people and goods between Gibraltar and Spain, provisionally applied from the next day. It preserves the UK’s and Spain’s opposing sovereignty positions and has the backing of Gibraltar’s government and Parliament; it does not settle the territorial dispute