The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has on 17 September 2026 allowed the appeal in Francis-v-Attorney General of St Helena, holding that Crown land in St Helena is capable of being acquired by prescription under the Registered Land Ordinance 1980.
The case
The opening words of the judgement also gives a flavour of the unusual facts of the case:
“This is an appeal concerning the former dairy of Napoleon Bonaparte, an 1833 statute governing the affairs of the East India Company and the system of land registration in one of the most remote inhabited islands on earth.” These are the enticing words with which the appellant opens his written case in this appeal to the Board from St Helena. Put more prosaically, the issue in the appeal is whether Crown land in St Helena can be acquired by prescription.
The appeal arose from an application to rectify the Land Register in respect of land at Longwood, part of the former dairy serving the house in which Napoleon Bonaparte lived in exile. The Crown objected that Crown land could not be acquired by prescription and the Registrar of Lands stated a case for the opinion of the Supreme court on that question, which had never previously been argued on the island.
The decision
The Chief Justice held that there was no bar to prescription. The Court of Appeal reversed that decision, holding that section 159 of the Ordinance which preserves interests conferred on the Crown “by any other written law”, protected land vested in the Crown by section 112 of the Saint Helena Act 1833, the sole surviving provision of what was originally the Government of India Act 1833.
The Board ( Lord Reed, Lord Burrows, Lady Rose, Lord Snowden and Sir Anthony Smellie) in a judgement given by Lord Reed, rejected that literal construction as incompatible with the purpose of the registration system the Ordinance establishes. Section 159 protects the Crown’s statutory rights and powers over land belonging to others; it does not shield the Crown’s own ownership of land which falls squarely within he scope of registration. The question stated by the Registrar was answered in the affirmative and the matter remitted for determination.
Joshua acted for Mr Francis, instructed by and appearing alongside, Mr Walter Scott, Public solicitor of St Helena Island.
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has toon 17 September 2026 allowed the appeal in Francis v Attorney General of St Helena, holding that Crown land in St Helena is capable of being acquired by prescription under the Registered Land Ordinance 1980.
The case
The opening words of the judgment also give a flavour of the unusual facts of the case:
“This is an appeal concerning the former dairy of Napoleon Bonaparte, an 1833 statute governing the affairs of the East India Company, and the system of land registration in one of the most remote inhabited islands on earth”. These are the enticing words with which the appellant opens his written case in this appeal to the Board from St Helena. Put more prosaically, the issue in the appeal is whether Crown land in St Helena can be acquired by prescription.
The appeal arose from an application to rectify the Land Register in respect of land at Longwood, part of the former dairy serving the house in which Napoleon Bonaparte lived in exile. The Crown objected that Crown land could not be acquired by prescription, and the Registrar of Lands stated a case for the opinion of the Supreme Court on that question, which had never previously been argued on the island.
The decision
The Chief Justice held that there was no bar to prescription. The Court of Appeal reversed that decision, holding that section 159 of the Ordinance, which preserves interests conferred on the Crown “by any other written law”, protected land vested in the Crown by section 112 of the Saint Helena Act 1833, the sole surviving provision of what was originally the Government of India Act 1833.
The Board (Lord Reed, Lord Burrows, Lady Rose, Lord Snowden and Sir Anthony Smellie), in a judgment given by Lord Reed, rejected that literal construction as incompatible with the purpose of the registration system the Ordinance establishes. Section 159 protects the Crown’s statutory rights and powers over land belonging to others; it does not shield the Crown’s own ownership of land, which falls squarely within the scope of registration. The question stated by the Registrar was answered in the affirmative and the matter remitted for determination.