« L’histoire dira que Lord Durham a préféré une petite faction, et l’exposera comme une des aberrations humaines de notre époque. »

Dagenais, Maxime

doi:10.7202/1028892ar

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The Special Council received greater attention from academic historians starting in the 1980s (Fecteau 1987;Goldring 1980;Greenwood 1980;Greenwood 1988;Kenny 1984; see also Masciota 1987), and more direct attention in edited collections such as Colonial Leviathan (see Greer 1992;Greer & Radforth 1992;Radforth 1992;Young 1992) and Canadian State Trials, Volume II (see Boissery 2002;Fecteau 2002;Greenwood & Wright 2002;Watt 2002; see also Fecteau & Hay 1996;Greenwood & Wright 1996b). The last decade has seen a shift back to articles as the primary medium engaging the Special Council (Curtis 2008;Dagenais 2013Dagenais , 2015Dagenais , 2016Gunn 2007;Henderson 2013;Phillips 2016); however, this recent literature has not filled the void of a comprehensive monograph on the topic.…”

Section: The Special Council Of Lower Canadamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Special Council of Lower Canada and the Origin of Canadian Sovereignty

Murphy

2018

CPSR

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Turning to Agamben’s notion of the decision of the “state of exception” as the fundamental act of the sovereign, this article traces the origin of Canadian sovereignty through a legal history of the suspension of habeas corpus in Lower Canada. Building both on the work of Canadianists engaging the political and legal theory of Giorgio Agamben and the work of Canadian historians on the Special Council of Lower Canada, this article demonstrates how Governor Colborne’s declaration of martial law in response to the 1837-1838 rebellions in Lower Canada reveals the genesis-moment of Canadian sovereignty. This historical contextualization of the Special Council fills an important gap in the historiography of the Council, as well as the continental approaches to applied theory in Canadian political science.

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