First Law Commission
Topic: Europeans in India and the Rise of Company Rule · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The First Law Commission was a body set up under the Charter Act of 1833. Its job was to codify Indian law, meaning to collect and write down the laws in clear, single codes. Thomas B. Macaulay was its chairman. Its most important work was the draft of a criminal code for all of British India.
Example
In the 1830s Macaulay's commission prepared a draft penal code, a list of crimes and their punishments. It was revised over the following years and passed as the Indian Penal Code in 1860. It stayed India's main criminal law for over 160 years.
Don't confuse with
- Law Commission of India: a body of independent India, first set up in 1955 with M.C. Setalvad as chairman. The First Law Commission belongs to Company rule in the 1830s.
Related concepts
- Charles Metcalfe
- Warren Hastings
- Regulating Act 1773
- Supreme Court at Calcutta 1774
- Pitt's India Act 1784
- Impeachment of Warren Hastings
- Cornwallis Code 1793
- Charter Act 1793
- Covenanted civil service
- Fort William College