In a Defiant Stance: The Conditions of Law in Massachusetts Bay, the Irish Comparison, and the Coming of the American RevolutionThe minimum of violence accompanying the success of the American Revolution resulted in large part, argues this book, from the conditions of law the British allowed in the American colonies. By contrast, Ireland's struggle for independence was prolonged, bloody, and bitter largely because of the repressive conditions of law imposed by Britain. Examining the most rebellious American colony, Massachusetts Bay, Professor Reid finds that law was locally controlled while imperial law was almost nonexistent as an influence on the daily lives of individuals. In Ireland the same English common law, because of imperial control of legal machinery, produced an opposite result. The Irish were forced to resort to secret, underground violence. The author examines various Massachusetts Bay institutions to show the consequences of whig party control, in contrast to the situation in 18th-century Ireland. A general conclusion is that law, the conditions of positive law, and the matter of who controls the law may have more significant effects on the course of events than is generally assumed. |
From inside the book
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... the old constitution , usurping powers and trampling on the rights of the people . " We could not , " argued Arthur O'Connor , who was a lawyer as well as a former member of parliament and high sheriffof 11 THE LOCUS OF LAW.
... lawyers , and other professionals of about 20 percent.33 Writers of the left find fault with historians who emphasize the 80 percent at the top to prove that eighteenth - century America was a social and economic democracy . Rather , it ...
... lawyers on all levels of the system — from the superior court of judicature at the top through the inferior courts of common pleas to the justices of the peace on the local level — most were educated men of social standing and there are ...
... lawyers who practiced before them , had few members educated at the Inns of Court , but it was well trained and professionally competent . By 1775 there were seventy - one lawyers in the province , of which twenty - nine would become ...
... lawyer , supposedly trained in the same legal traditions and well - grounded in the same law as the attorneys of Massachusetts Bay . But no Massachusetts lawyer would have asked the question O'Connor asked . They praised their law ...
Contents
1 | |
7 | |
17 | |
27 | |
Juries Lie Open to Management The Uses of the Grand Jury | 41 |
In Defiance of the Threats The Criminal Traverse Jury | 55 |
Unless Laws Are Enforced The Legitimacy of Whig Law | 65 |
By Consent of the Council The Import of Local Control | 74 |
Disjointed and Independent of Each Other The Conditions of Imperial Law | 100 |
The Government They Have Set Up The Emergence of Whig Government | 118 |
The Oppression of Centuries The Irish Comparison | 135 |
A Most Dreadful Ruin The Legal Mind of BritishRuled Ireland | 143 |
To Effect a Revolution The Execution of Imperial Law | 150 |
Enforced by Mobs The Rule of Law | 160 |
Notes | 174 |
Acknowledgments | 219 |
The Seeds of Anarchy The Execution of Whig Law | 85 |
The Same Leaven with the People The Legal Mind of the American Whig | 92 |
Index | 220 |