He served as a judge in a number of British colonies, his last judicial appointment being as Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements.

[7][4] In 1906, Shaw was appointed Police Magistrate and Acting Chief Justice of St Vincent.

[4] After two years without official duties, Shaw was Acting Administrator of St Vincent from 1911 to 1912, then from 1912 to 1914 was Chief Justice of British Honduras (now Belize).

Upon his retirement, he explained that it was "not because I have any desire to attire myself in fancy costume, or because I wished to give myself any special personal importance, but because I think that it tends to remind, not only the public and the Bar, but even the judge himself, that he is a representative of that very illustrious body of men – the English judges, who have done so much to establish and maintain the freedom of the English people".

[11] The Shaw Commission found that the fundamental cause of the violence "without which in our opinion disturbances either would not have occurred or would have been little more than a local riot, is the Arab feeling of animosity and hostility towards the Jews consequent upon the disappointment of their political and national aspirations and fear for their economic future".