IOR/R/15/3

The Resident and Political Agents in the Gulf exercised extra-territorial jurisdiction under Orders in Council made under the Foreign Jurisdiction Acts of 1890-1913, but Bahrain is the only Agency from which Court records have survived in significant numbers. It was not until 1913 that an Order was made establishing British Courts in Bahrain Order, and because of the First World War this was not actually brought into effect until 2 February 1919, after which it remained in force until 1949 when it was replaced by a new Order primarily necessitated by the ending of British government in India.

The British Agent had long exercised jurisdiction over British Indians in Bahrain and since 1904 had assumed jurisdiction over all non-Bahrain subjects. He also held a joint Court with the Ruler or his representative to hear cases in which the accused was a Bahrain subject (or a foreigner who did not invoke British good offices), and the other party was not. In addition he controlled a local Majlis al’Urfi - the body of prominent inhabitants of Bahrain, both native and foreign, who were appointed jointly by the Ruler and the Political Agent to give their opinion in commercial disputes between British subjects and others. As early as 1907 it had been proposed to regularise this situation by publicly assuming jurisdiction over foreigners.

After the introduction of the Order in 1919, there was some friction between the Ruler and the Political Agent over the operation of the Majlis al‘Urfi, and the Salifa Court which examined diving and marine cases. The Political Agent suspended the sittings of the Majlis, which was not reconstituted until 1920. With Shaikh ‘Isa’s retirement in 1923 relations improved, and following the appointment of the British Adviser to the Bahrain Government in 1926, local courts were established which worked hand in hand with the British Courts.

Four Courts, whose records are preserved in this collection, derived their authority from the Bahrain Order in Council: the Chief Court, the Political Agent’s Court (the Political Agent sitting as District Magistrate), the Sessions Court (the Political Agent sitting as Sessions Judge), and the Joint Court (the Political Agent and the Ruler sitting together). Two subordinate Courts, the Assistant Political Agent’s and the Indian Assistant’s, depended from the Political Agent’s Court for the greater part of the period during which the Order was in force, and the Joint Court proper, known as the Senior Joint Court, had a Junior Court subordinate to it. The Chief Court, which exercised functions beside those conferred on it by the Bahrain Order, consisted of the Political Resident at Bushire, and appeal lay to it from the Agency Courts. For a detailed description of the Courts and the Law, see Penelope Tuson, ‘The records of the British Residency and Agencies in the Persian Gulf’, pp 107-110.