Dewigged, Bothered, and Bewildered

John McLaren is a professor emeritus in the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria.

‘This book is a colourful comparative study of the contested boundaries between law and politics in the British Empire …The sheer number of characters and colonies McLaren has researched here gives unprecedented empirical breadth to his history. Underneath McLaren’s detailed biographies lies a new history of the British Empire written on an archival scale.’ - Lisa Ford (Victorian Studies, Spring 2014) ‘McLaren’s book provides a rigorous and fascinating account of how the Colonial Office exercised its disciplinary authority over colonial judges… McLaren’s empire-wide comparative approach allows us to observe imperial political, legal, and social networks in play.’ - Philip Girard (Journal of Law and Society vol 39:04:2012) ‘McLaren is to be congratulated for coherently tying together the experience of a dozen colonies over a full century… the author has done a good job showing how the quirks and oddities of these individual judicial characters have the potential to reveal a great deal about the inner workings of the imperial project.’ - Patrick J. Connors (Canadian Historical Review, vol 94:01:2013) ‘McLaren’s work is a wonderful contribution to English legal history that will be of great value to both legal scholars and more general students of the British Empire.’- Jeffrey B. Robb (The Historian; vol 75:02:2013)

• CHAPTER 1Colonial Judges in Trouble – Setting the SceneCHAPTER 2Judicial Tenure and Accountability and Independence in the Common Law World before 1800CHAPTER 3The Administration of Colonial Justice and Law in the 19th Century British Empire: General ContoursCHAPTER 4 The Perils of the Colonial Judiciary — Courting Reform in a Counter-Revolutionary Empire, 1800-1830CHAPTER 5 The Perils of the Colonial Judiciary: Ultra-Conservative Judges in an Era of Developing Reformist Sentiment in the British Empire, 1810-1840CHAPTER 6 The Perils of the Colonial Judiciary: Guarding the Sanctity of the Common Law from Local “Deviations” in a Convict Colony, 1800-1830CHAPTER 7 The Perils of the Colonial Judiciary: English Legal Culture and the Repugnancy Card in the Australian Colonies, 1830- 1850 CHAPTER 8Repugnancy in Australia after 1850: Shoot Out in Adelaide, 1854-1868CHAPTER 9The Perils of the Colonial Judiciary: The Incubus of Slavery in the West Indian Colonies and West Africa, 1800-1834CHAPTER 10The Perils of the Colonial Judiciary: The Indelible Stain of Slavery in the West Indian Colonies, 1834-1900CHAPTER 11Judges, Courts and Empire in the 19th Century and Beyond