Indigenous Peoples, Legal History, Movements & Periods, Sociology, Literature, History, Law, British settlers, Canada 

Law and society 

"In the late nineteenth century, the English legal historians Frederick Pollock and F.W. Maitland coined the phase "the grand experiment" to describe the spread of English law throughout the British Empire. For them, this was an unequivocally positive process that would uplift settler societies. The work of recent legal historians has alerted us to more complex impact English law had on the peoples, both settler and indigenous, of those colonial societies. This '"new colonial legal history" has revealed subtle and more ambiguous understanding of "the grand experiment."" "The essays in this volume reflect the exciting new directions in which legal history in the settler colonies of the British Empire had developed. The contributors, all noted scholars, show how local life and culture in selected settlements influenced, and was influenced by, the ideology of the rule of law that accompanied the British colonial project. Exploring themes of legal translation, local understandings, judicial biography, and "law at the boundaries," they examine the legal cultures of dominions in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to provide a contextual and comparative account of the "incomplete implementation of the British constitution" in these colonies. A variety of topics are covered, ranging from libel law in New South Wales, Upper Canada, and Massachusetts to the much-neglected question of the extent to which British courts took note of the decisions made by courts in the settler dominions." -- book jacket. 

Content:

Introduction: Does law matter? The new colonial legal history / Benjamin L. Berger, Hamar Foster, and A.R. Buck -- Libel and the colonial administration of justice in Upper Canada and New South Wales, c. 1825-30 / Barry Wright -- The limits of despotic government at sea / Bruce Kercher -- One chief, two chiefs, red chiefs, blue chiefs: newcomer perspectives on indigenous leadership in Rupert's land and the North-West Territories / Janna Promislow -- Rhetoric, reason, and the rule of law in early colonial New South Wales / Ian Holloway, Simon Bronitt, and John Williams -- Sometimes persuasive authority : Dominion case law and English judges, 1895-1970 / Jeremy Finn -- Courts, communities, and communication : the Nova Scotia Supreme Court on circuit, 1816-50 / Jim Phillips and Philip Girard -- Fame and infamy: two men of the law in colonial New Zealand / David V. Williams -- Moving in an "eccentric orbit" : the independence of Judge Algernon Sidney Montagu in Van Diemen's land 1833-47 / Stefan Petrow -- "Not in keeping with the traditions of the Cariboo Courts" : courts and community identity in Northeastern British Columbia, 1920-50 / Jonatan Swainger -- Starkie's adventures in North America : the emergence of libel law / Lyndsay M. Campbell -- The law of dower in New South Wales and the United States : a study in comparative legal history / A.R. Buck and Nancy E. Wright -- Contesting prohibition and the Constitution in 1850s New Brunswick / Greg Marquis -- From humble prayers to legal demands : the Cowichan petition of 1909 and the British Columbia Indian land question / Hamar Foster and Benjamin L. Berger -- Afterword: Looking from the past into the future / John McLaren. 

Includes bibliographical references (pages 352-376) and index.

Categorized by editor, then date.