Full Description
The study of Canadian legal history has seen a remarkable growth in the past decade, nowhere more so than in Atlantic Canada. Given its early settlement and some of the liberties taken with legal procedure there - as well as some creative interpretations of English law - the region is ripe for close study in the legal history field. This new collection examines that history on 'two islands:' Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.
The essays examine legal themes, developments, and disputes, and offer a framework for comparing ways of administering justice through the courts in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The cases examined are particularly interesting for the light they throw on legal process and, especially, on the motives of the parties. Unlike in contemporary England and Upper Canada, the English precedents gave way to local needs as equitable regimes emerged that put family and community interests first, and treated all members of the family in ways tailored to their personal needs and circumstances.
This volume, which includes a number of essays examining women's legal status and access to the courts, is a comprehensive and fascinating examination of legal history in two Canadian provinces.
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Introduction
CHRISTOPHER ENGLISH
Part One: Historiography
The Legal Historiography of Newfoundland
CHRISTOPHER ENGLISH
The Legal Historiography of Prince Edward Island
J.M. BUMSTED
Part Two: The Administration of Justice
Politics and the Administration of Justice on Early Prince Edward Island, 1769-1805
J.M. BUMSTED
Surgeons and Criminal Justice in Eighteenth-Century Newfoundland
JERRY BANNISTER
The Supreme Court on Circuit: Northern District, Newfoundland, 1826-33
NINA JANE GOUDIE
Part Three: Property Law and Inheritance
Formal and Informal Law in Two New Lands: Land Law in Newfoundland and New South Wales under Francis Forbes
BRUCE KERCHER AND JODIE YOUNG
Defining Property for Inheritance: The Chattels Real Act of 1834
TRUDI JOHNSON
'The Duty of Every Man': Intestacy Law and Family-Inheritance Practice in Prince Edward Island, 1828-1905
MICHEL STAIRS
Part Four: Legal Status and Access to the Courts by Women
'Now You Vagabond [W]hore I Have You': Plebeian Women, Assault Cases, and Gender Relationships on the Southern Avalon, 1750-1860
WILLEEN L. KEOUGH
Women in the Courts of Placentia District, 1757-1823
KRISTA L. SIMON
'Out of Date in a Good Many Respects': The Legal Status and Judicial Treatment of Newfoundland Women, 1945-9
LAURA BROWN
Part Five: Litigation in Chancery and at Common Law
Bowley v. Cambridge: A Colonial Jarndyce and Jarndyce
BAVID M. BULGER
The Judges Go to Court: The Cashin Libel Trial of 1947
CHRISTOPHER ENGLISH
Index
