Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 25 - Criminal Law and the Administration of Justice in Early New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land

  • from VI - Social Ordering
  • Edited by Peter Cane, University of Cambridge, Lisa Ford, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Mark McMillan
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Legal History of Australia
    Published online:
    04 August 2022
    Print publication:
    18 August 2022, pp 581-604

  • Summary

    The peculiar purpose and population of the Australian penal colonies presented a raft of problems for the administration of justice and the maintenance of discipline. There was a perceived need for a simplified and more coercive system of law, which however coincided with a desire that local law and justice be fairly applied and keep pace with metropolitan legal reforms. That bred numerous tensions and confusions. This chapter considers how the need to control convict populations in colonial New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land invited a myriad of compromises and peculiarities, including a chaotic application of English transportation law and the assumption of vast and informal powers by colonial magistrates. Although there was a broad shift over time towards the normalising of colonial justice and discipline, the imperial and local governments were slow to correct local informalities, injustices, and deviations from metropolitan law and practice.