The Grand Experiment: Law and Legal Culture in British Settler Societies (Law and Society) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0774814918 ISBN 13: 9780774814911

Publisher: UBC Press, 2008

Synopsis

In the late nineteenth century, the English legal historians Frederick Pollock and F.W. Maitland coined the phrase "the grand experiment" to describe the spread of English law throughout the British Empire. For Pollock and Maitland, this was an unequivocally positive process that would uplift settler societies. The work of recent legal historians, however, has alerted us to the 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 understandings 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 has 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. Given the current lively debates about national characteristics and the rights of aboriginal peoples in British settler societies, this historical investigation has immediate relevance. The Grand Experiment will be of interest to all those whose lives have been shaped by the legacy of English law.

About this title

Review:

This collection of essays by Canada's and Australasia's most accomplished legal historians is a ?must' for academic libraries and those who share these scholars' interest in the legal culture of the British colonial world.- Peter Karsten is a Professor in the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of Between Law and Custom: "High" and "Low" Legal Cultures in the Lands of the British Diaspora, 1600?1900

This collection of essays by Canada's and Australasia's most accomplished legal historians is a "must" for academic libraries and those who share these scholars? interest in the legal culture of the British colonial world.? Peter Karsten, author of Between Law and Custom: "High" and "Low" Legal Cultures in the Lands of the British Diaspora, 1600-1900

Synopsis:

"The Grand Experiment" reveals how local life and culture in selected colonies interacted with the rule of law that accompanied the British colonial project. This rich account of the 'incomplete implementation of the British constitution' in the colonies explores themes of legal translation, local understandings, judicial biography, and law at the boundaries - and reveals how far colonial legal history has come during the past two decades.Contributors examine the legal cultures of colonies or former colonies in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, with an occasional comparative glance at other colonial societies, such as South Africa and certain United States jurisdictions. They cover a diversity of topics, including dower, prohibition, libel law, the authority of masters on the high seas, the clash of colonial and indigenous legal regimes, circuits courts, 'men of law,' and the extent to which British courts took note of the decisions made by courts in settler dominions.Rich in empirical detail and analytical reach, "The Grand Experiment" is a detailed look at the heart of the colonial legal enterprise.

It will be of interest to lawyers, scholars, and students seeking to understand the relationship between British colonial legal institutions and the life and culture of the settler societies in which they took root.

About this edition

• Publisher: UBC Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0774814918
• ISBN 13: 9780774814911
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416
• Editor: Foster Hamar, Berger Benjamin L., Buck A.R.