Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Vol. IX: Two Islands: Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island

John D. Blackwell is director of the Research Grants Office at St.
Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, and the author of Canadian
Studies: A Guide to the Sources (http://www.
iccs-ciec.ca/blackwell.html).

Established in 1979, The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History has
published more than 60 monographs and provided a major impetus to the
development of research and writing in this important field of study.

In volume nine of the society’s flagship series, Christopher English,
an honorary research professor in the Department of History and
co-ordinator of the Law and Society program at Memorial University of
Newfoundland, has edited a fine pioneering collection of essays on the
legal history of Canada’s two island provinces, Newfoundland and
Prince Edward Island.

The first two of the volume’s 13 essays provide illuminating
historiographical overviews of each province’s distinctive legal
history and culture. The extant literature on each island’s legal
history is slim because neither jurisdiction has a legal school to
stimulate interest in the subject, the number of active scholars is
small, and the relevant sources are scattered or incomplete.

The 12 contributors, including students, academics, and lawyers,
explore selected aspects of the distinctive legal culture on each island
during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The remaining 11 essays are
arranged into four thematic sections: The Administration of Justice,
Property Law and Inheritance, Legal Status and Access to the Courts by
Women, and Litigation in Chancery and at Common Law. As English observes
in the book’s introduction: “For the moment, the prevailing approach
is modest, cautious, eclectic, and incremental. We are content to
explore the nuances of regional and local developments, without the
knowledge, or even the hope, that Canada’s legal history will prove
more than the sum of its parts. ...We must take our case studies as we
find them, hoping that any hypotheses and conclusions we draw will
contribute to the national enterprise.”

These meticulously researched contributions to Atlantic Canada’s
legal history uphold the high standards of The Osgoode Society’s
previous publications and provide some preliminary and tantalizing brush
strokes on the larger canvas, hinting at the complex and nuanced image
waiting to be revealed.