The essay enquires into the nature of the ‘colonial laws’ that colonial powers (Spain, France, Britain, Germany, Italy) enacted to govern the populations of their overseas territories. The focus is on the hybrid character of that law between (public) international law and domestic (administrative) law. Hybridity served to protect colonial rule from being critiqued by international criteria while enabling treating colonial populations by standards different from those applied to citizens. The essay asks the question to what extent today’s new laws in Europe that seek to deal with aliens might seek a similar hybridity.