Law, history, colonialism: The reach of empire (Studies in Imperialism, 41)

Front matter Contents General editor's introduction Notes on contributors Acknowledgements Introduction Part I Colonialism’s legality Terminal legality: imperialism and the (de)composition of law Law’s empire: chartering English colonies on the American mainland in the seventeenth century Reflections on the rule of law: the Georgian colonies of New South Wales and Upper Canada, 1788–1837 Part II Imperialism and citizenship ‘Race’ definition run amuck: ‘slaying the dragon of Eskimo status’ before the Supreme Court of Canada, 1939 The paradox of ‘ultra-democratic’ government: indigenous civil rights in nineteenth-century New Zealand, Canada and Australia ‘When there’s no safety in numbers’: fear and the franchise in South Africa – the case of Natal Making ‘mad’ populations in settler colonies: the work of law and medicine in the creation of the colonial asylum Part III Justice, custom and the common law Towards a ‘taxonomy’ for the common law: legal history and the recognition of Aboriginal customary law The problem of Aboriginal evidence in early colonial New South Wales Assuming judicial control: George Brown’s narrative defence of the ‘New Britain raid’ Part IV Land, sovereignty and imperial frontiers The fate of Maori land rights in early colonial New Zealand: the limits of the Treaty of Waitangi and the doctrine of Aboriginal title ‘Because it does not make sense’: sovereignty’s power in the case of Delgamuukw v. The Queen 1997 Land, conveyancing reform and the problem of the married woman in colonial Australia The construction of property rights on imperial frontiers: the case of the New Zealand Native Land Purchase Ordinance of 1846 Part V Colonialism’s legacy International law – recolonizing the Third World? Law and conflicts over water in the Krishna River Basin Historians and native title: the question of evidence ‘Race’, gender and nation in history and law Index Explores issues including the judicial construction of racial categories, the gendered definitions of nation-states, the historical construction of citizenship, sovereignty and land rights, the limits to legality and the charting of empire, constructions of madness among colonised people, reforming property rights of married women. This work brings together the disciplines of law, history and post-colonial studies in an exploration of imperialism. In essays, from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, it offers perspectives on the length and breadth of empire