Glimpses of Canadian Legal History ed. by Dale Gibson, W. Wesley Pue (review)

REVIEWS Glimpses ofCanadian Legal History. Editedbyr•,sa•. GInSON andw.WmL•_¾ PU[ Manitoba:LegalResearch Institute of Manitoba1991.Pp.viii,288 In the absence of ajournalof Canadian legalhistory,muchcurrentscholar. shipin thefieldsince thepioneering days of DavidFlaherty's Essays/n History ofCanadian Law, volume I, has appeared intheform ofbooks ofessa• on a varietyof subjects. An evolvingformulafor thesecollections mandate• thattheybebroadly inclusive in termsof gender, race,andgeographical coverage, and,withsomeexceptions, eclectic in the rangeof topics covered. In theabsence ofthematic coherence, thereisthusa kindofformulaic unity to thesecollections asourknowledge in a variety of areas isincrementally advanced withtheappearance of eachnewvolume. Glimpses ofCanadian Legal History, thelatestadditionto thisliterature, itsexistence to a symposium heldin April 1990partlyto launcha newcolla. borativeCanadian legalhistory course attheUniversity of Manitoba; theidea wasthatthe partialpants wouldproduce a textbook on Canadian legal history .Mostoftheeleven articles included herewerewritten bylawprofessors, but the intendedaudience is the generalreaderrather than the academic lawyer. Thecollection isfocused ontheperiod1870-1930, withafewpapers on the pre-Confederation years. A number of the articleswill help convincegeneralreadersthatlegal historyis not confinedto obscure technicalities of interestmainlytolawyers themselves. Among the subjects of the articlesare an eighteenth-century treasontrial, a mutinyin thefur trade,a gangrapein nineteenth-century Toronto, the extradition of American train robbers, and the trial of an Inuit manformurder.Beyond demonstrating thecontemporary relevance oflegal history,thesepapers addto a growing literatureexposing thelimitations Britishjustice.Takentogether, theyshowhowthe legalsystem in British North Americaovera longperiodof timeactedasa bulwarkfor theinterests of the powerful ratherthanasa protection for the rightsof theweak. The system, indeed, could beandwas manipulated bythestate against suspected traitors, byemployers against labour, byseemingly respectable menagainst fallenwomen, by theAmerican government against itsowncitizens inextraditioncases , andbyEuropeans against natives. The support of British lumbiaSupreme Courtjustices fortherights oftheChinese minority prior m 1885istheonebrightspot inanotherwise gloomy scenario; yeteven this was a transitory phase, basically eliminated byturn-of-the-century Privy Council decisions whichlimited judicialpowers against those ofthelegislature. REVIEWS 281 Themanifold weaknesses ofBritish NorthAmerican Justice' asshowcased inthese essays willbe of'considerable interestto social historians, whowill, however, regret theabsence ofanintroductory chapter toputthese essays in theoretical andcomparative perspective. Moregenerally, those familiarwith the history ofBritish NorthAmerica willwonder whyitsresidents throughout thenineteenth centurysosteadfastly expressed unshakable confidence in the superiority of British institutions; theeditors haveaddednothing to the observations GregMarquis hasalready madeonthispointin hiscontribution toCanadian Perspectives onLawandSociety: Issues inLegal History, edited byW. Wesley PueandBarryWright(Ottawa 1988). Aside fromtheadministration ofjustice, Glimpses ofLegal History contains essays thatwillbe of interest to political historians and historians of the professions. In theformer category, D.G.Bell's artfide onthejudiciary in post-Confederation NewBrunswick isa solidaddition to theliterature on political patronage. Richard RiskandPaulRomney explore dimensions of latenineteenth-century constitutional thought.W. WesleyPue'stimely addition to the literatureon the historyof the profession exploresthe connection between the approvalof a codeof ethics by the Canadian Bar ,•ssociation in 1920 and the socialchanges occurringin early twentiethcentury Canada. Asa unit, thiscollection performssomefunctions betterthan others.For historians, the articles providea goodindicationof the extentto whichsome types of legalhistoryoverlapwith historywrittenby university historians. Those whoare hopingto samplea wide spectrum of fieldswithin legal history will,however, bedisappointed. Amongthemissing subjects arelegal tl-,eory, lawandtheeconomy, lawyers andbusiness, andlegalhistoriography. Readers wouldbewiseto bearin mindthatcriminal justicethemes, though animportant aspect of legalhistory, donot dominate the fieldto the extent that theirrepresentation in thisvolume wouldindicate. Internationally, work on dvilasopposed tocriminal lawthemes ismuchmoreprominent thanthe current state of workin Canadasuggests. CAROL WILTON YorkUniversity •Bqvad the Law: Lawyers andBusiness in Canada, 1830-1930. Edited bycamoL WILTON. Essays in the Historyof CanadianLaw,volume4. Toronto:Publahed fortheOsgoode Society byButterwoxxhs 1990.Pp.xviii,490,illus. $•o.oo This volume isthefourth intheOsgoode Society's Essays intheHistory of Canadian Lawseries. It makes original contributions tothehistories ofthe Canadian legal profession andCanadian business. TheworkofBlaine Baker and others has toldusmuch about theprofession asaprofession, andthatof ...