The Capacity To Judge

McNairn, Jeffrey L.

doi:10.3138/9781442680623

Cited by 31 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…McNairn has demonstrated that libel trials in Upper Canada shaped the contours of freedom of the press, and were thus important to whether public opinion would determine government policy. 107 In Nova Scotia, reformers took a special interest in jury selection, particularly in libel cases, and screamed foul when they believed reform newspaper publishers faced packed juries. As in Upper Canada, the jury system thus became badly entwined in politics.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three Cheers for Lord Denman: Reformers, the Irish, and Jury Reforms in Nova Scotia, 1833-1845

Brown¹

2007

jcha

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article explores the important place of the jury in the relationship between law, politics, and state in pre-Confederation Nova Scotia. The legislature responded to fears of jury packing by creating more complex procedures for jury selection. These jury selection systems relied for their implementation on committees composed of magistrates and sheriffs, officials who proved unreliable instruments for carrying out a more bureaucratic state policy. Juries also reflected, and influenced, debates about political parties, libel, and the public sphere. In the 1840s, Irish immigrants to Nova Scotia drew upon their experience of packed juries in Ireland to complain that they were systematically excluded from jury service. Political reformers also asserted that officials packed juries against them with their political opponents, especially in high profile libel cases in which tories attempted to silence the increasingly critical reform press. These libel cases highlighted the role of the jury in protecting freedom of the press and therefore reformers’ ability to challenge the tory leadership of the colony. The fierce complaints over jury selection irregularities led to the passage of reform legislation, though a final solution to the politicization of juries remained elusive with the emergence and acceptance of political parties in Nova Scotia.L’article suivant analyse le rôle important du jury au regard de la loi, de la politique et de l’État, dans la Nouvelle-Écosse d’avant la Confédération. Afin d’éviter qu’un jury soit noyauté, l’assemblée législative élabora des procédures complexes pour mieux encadrer la sélection des jurés. La mise en oeuvre de ces procédures relevait de comités composés de magistrats et de shérifs; ces représentants officiels se révélèrent toutefois peu fiables pour appliquer les mesures bureaucratiques instaurées par l’État. Les jurés ne restaient pas imperméables aux débats sur les partis politiques, sur la diffamation et sur les questions relevant du domaine public. Dans les années 1840, les immigrants irlandais installés en Nouvelle-Écosse, forts de leur expérience de noyautage de jury en Irlande, se plaignirent qu’ils n’étaient jamais appelés à faire partie d’un jury. Des réformistes politiques affirmèrent aussi que des représentants officiels choisissaient des jurés défavorables à leur cause, surtout lorsqu’il s’agissait de cas majeurs de poursuite en diffamation, les torys se servant de cette tribune pour tenter de museler une presse réformiste de plus en plus critique. Ces procès en diffamation soulignaient l’importance du rôle du jury dans la protection de la liberté de la presse et montraient conséquemment que les réformistes avaient les moyens d’ébranler le leadership des torys dans la colonie. Les virulentes dénonciations des irrégularités dans la sélection des jurés débouchèrent sur l’adoption d’une loi réformiste; le problème de la politisation des jurés resta cependant difficile à régler entièrement à cause de la montée et de la reconnaissance des partis politiques en Nouvelle-...

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three Cheers for Lord Denman: Reformers, the Irish, and Jury Reforms in Nova Scotia, 1833-1845

Brown¹

2007

jcha

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…9 It also granted both provinces a local government, explicitly modelled in the image of the mixed constitution of Britain. 10 The two provinces were to be ruled by a Legislative Assembly elected by property-owners, a hereditary Legislative Council and a Governor, chosen by the Imperial government. This mixed government was established in part to prevent the republican temptation following the American Revolution.…”

Section: -The Canadian Crisis: Between 'Democracy' and 'Nationality'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Democratic Struggle or National Uprising? The Canadian Rebellions in British Political Thought, 1835–1840

Plassart

Bonin

2020

Global Intellectual History

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Jeffrey McNairn observes that "The Kingston Gazette was the only colonial newspaper operating throughout the war, but it published little more than the speeches opening the first four sessions of the sixth parliament." 39 The Montreal press, largely in the hands of Scottish immigrants, picked up some of the slack, especially the Montreal Herald, which provided much lively editorial content. One vitriolic series of letters criticizing British military mistakes earned the editor, Mungo Kay, and the printer charges of criminal libel in 1815.…”

Section: Part I: the Spectre Of Sexual Violence During The War Of 1812mentioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing Innocence: Representations of Sexual Violence in Upper Canada’s War of 1812

Heaman¹

2014

jcha

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This essay explores the way in which rape was represented in Upper Canada circa 1812. It draws upon a broadly defined Upper Canadian print culture that drew upon and reacted against wider trends, especially those prevalent in the United States. Whereas American newspapers spoke openly of sexual violence against American women during the War of 1812, Upper Canadian sources tended to suppress any such discussion, for reasons that reflect profound cultural and political differences. Americans stoked a rowdy, popular patriotism that Canadians distrusted and sought to avert. The analysis of national differences is contextualized within broader changes in the ways that rape was constructed in the press and the courts over the first half of the nineteenth century, in ways that worked to muffle women’s public voice. But the War of 1812’s most famous heroine, Laura Secord, was not silenced. Writing almost half a century later, Secord challenged discursive conventions of gender when she had her say and made herself a hero. The final section examines how Secord and her early commentators interwove literary signals of danger and respectability in their published accounts.

show abstract

The Capacity To Judge

Cited by 31 publications

References 0 publications

Three Cheers for Lord Denman: Reformers, the Irish, and Jury Reforms in Nova Scotia, 1833-1845

Three Cheers for Lord Denman: Reformers, the Irish, and Jury Reforms in Nova Scotia, 1833-1845

Democratic Struggle or National Uprising? The Canadian Rebellions in British Political Thought, 1835–1840

Constructing Innocence: Representations of Sexual Violence in Upper Canada’s War of 1812

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About