Masters, Servants, and Magistrates in Britain and the Empire, 1562-1955 (Studies in Legal History)

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Synopsis
Master and servant acts, the cornerstone of English employment law for more than four hundred years, gave largely unsupervised, inferior magistrates wide discretion over employment relations, including the power to whip, fine, and imprison men, women, and children for breach of private contracts with their employers. The English model was adopted, modified, and reinvented in more than a thousand colonial statutes and ordinances regulating the recruitment, retention, and discipline of workers in shops, mines, and factories; on farms, in forests, and on plantations; and at sea. This collection presents the first integrated comparative account of employment law, its enforcement, and its importance throughout the British Empire. Sweeping in its geographic and temporal scope, this volume tests the relationship between enacted law and enforced law in varied settings, with different social and racial structures, different economies, and different constitutional relationships to Britain. Investigations of the enforcement of master and servant law in England, the British Caribbean, India, Africa, Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, and colonial America shed new light on the nature of law and legal institutions, the role of inferior courts in compelling performance, and the definition of "free labor" within a multiracial empire.Contributors:David M. Anderson, St. Antony's College, OxfordMichael Anderson, London School of EconomicsJerry Bannister, Dalhousie University, Nova ScotiaM. K. Banton, National Archives of the United Kingdom, LondonMartin Chanock, La Trobe University, AustraliaPaul Craven, York UniversityJuanita De Barros, McMaster UniversityChristopher Frank, University of ManitobaDouglas Hay, York UniversityPrabhu P. Mohapatra, Delhi University, IndiaChristopher Munn, University of Hong KongMichael Quinlan, University of New South WalesRichard Rathbone, University of Wales, AberystwythChristopher Tomlins, American Bar Foundation, ChicagoMary Turner, London University
Copyright:
2004

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
608 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780807875865
Related ISBNs:
9780807828779, 9781469614731
Publisher:
The University of North Carolina Press
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
The University of North Carolina Press
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Business and Finance, Law, Legal Issues and Ethics
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.
Edited by:
Douglas Hay
Edited by:
Paul Craven

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