Despite considerable scholarly interest in both imperialism and in the construction of national identities there has been surprisingly little work on the role of law in relation to either. Law was however both the means and the end of Empire. Lawyers and their cultures were present at every level as Empire, colony, Dominion and State formed in the British Diaspora lands - including, of course, the United States.

In this paper I offer a preliminary exploration of the works of law in British Imperialism's project. It was centrally concerned with establishing the pre-conditions for the successful implantation of Britishness into new colonies: the pre-adaptation of its human subjects for eventual selfgovernance. Law and lawyers had a major role to play in this respect. This was a much harder task than merely wrestling land from its original occupants, harder even than asserting sovereignty against other "Christian princes". The colonies were remote and dangerous places.

I focus in particular on the attempt of a fraction of the organized legal professions to write Canada and Australia as "British" in certain key ways, arguing that one key to understanding the history of professionalization is to be found in the spatial and cultural projects of colonization.