1899 (in force 1901) · Criminal codes
Queensland Criminal Code (Griffith Code)
Queensland (Australia)
A criminal code drafted by Sir Samuel Griffith that put the whole of the criminal law of Queensland into one statute.
Why it matters
It was copied in Western Australia and Tasmania, in Papua New Guinea, and in Nigeria and other British colonies in Africa. It shows a common-law country adopting a code.
Built on
No earlier text on this timeline is a documented model for it.
Went on to shape
Countries in the Legal Families Atlas
TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.

