The Transplantation of the Common Law in Kenya and India.

India has an advanced legal system in which Engliah common law has adapted well to the local environment and developed in complexity, much in the way that scholars of the common law would predict. Kenya, on the other hand, also with a common law system developed under a British colonial administration, has a legal system which has not adpated well to the culture and environment. For example, in Kenya at independence there were three specific laws which directly affected property ownership. Currently in Kenya there are still just those three laws. Why did legal development and change occur in India and not Kenya? This paper will examine the two cases from a comparative perspective using archival resources as well as interviews to explain why the common law has not taken hold and adapted in the Kenyan context as it did in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]