Korf, S.A.: The Self-Governing Colonies of Great Britain

Title

Avtonomnye kolonii Velikobritanii, Sankt-Peterburg 1914

The Self-Governing Colonies of Great Britain

Keywords

Summary

The essay is divided into six chapters, dedicated respectively to Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Newfoundland, the state system of the British empire. In the chapter about South Africa, Korf explains how the Union of South Africa came to be, the government structure after the South Africa Act of 1909, how the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary work. Korf’s treatise is based upon a wide range of English, French and German sources, listed in the footnotes.

Bio

Sergei Korf was a Russian jurist and civil servant. Born in Saint Petersburg into a noble family of German origins, he studied law at Saint Petersburg University. During his university years, he also went to Germany and Switzerland in order to deepen his knowledge of law. He worked for the Ministry of Finance from 1898 to 1903, and as a professor of the history of law at the University of Helsinki from 1905 to 1918. A supporter of the Constitutional Democratic Party, he emigrated after the 1917 revolution, settling in Washington with his family. He taught at Georgetown and Columbia Universities until his death.

Sources

A. Pavlov, Nauchno-pedagogicheskaia i politicheskaia deiatel’nost’ S.A. Korfa (1876-1924 gg.) v Rossii i v emigratsii, PhD dissertation, Sankt-Peterburg 2006;

E. Petrov, S.A. Korf (1876-1924): pravoved, diplomat, obshchestvennyi deiatel’, Sankt-Peterburg 2018.

A.F.