BRITISH EMPIRE 383
nies is thus indefinite and confusing, even to the best- informed EngHsh jurists, and can seldom be stated with certainty. Under the new British code, the "self-governing dominions" will have the right to accept the Imperial code, either completely or with adaptation to local judicial methods, or to legislate independently.
In respect to the colonies now constituting the Do- Canadian minion of Canada, before British copyright protec- copyright tion had been definitely extended to works first pub- '^ *"^ lished outside the United Kingdom, Lower Canada in 1832, Canada (upper) in 1841 and Nova Scotia in 1847 had passed copyright statutes to protect authors of books first published in the respective provinces. On the passage of the Imperial act of 1847, authorizing the suspension of that portion of the act of 1842 which prohibited the importation of foreign reprints of Brit- ish copyright works, as to any colony in which pro- vision should be made by local legislation for protect- ing the rights of British authors. Orders in Council were passed for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in 1848 and for Canada in 1850, suspending such pro- hibition, following satisfactory protection accorded by local acts in those years. These local acts provided for the collection of an impost on foreign reprints of works by British authors in favor of the author or copyright owner.
In 1867 the British North America act (30 & 31 Dominion of Victoria, c. 3) was passed, providing for the union of Canada: Canada and the other North American provinces (ex- ^" ^ ""^ ^ cept Newfoundland) under the title of the Dominion of Canada, and section 91 of this act specified copy- right among the subjects which were to be within the legislative authority of the Parliament of Canada. At the first session of the first Dominion Parliament in 1868, a general copyright act was accordingly
