The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, 1754-2004: From Imperial Bastion to Provincial Oracle.
2004
Published for the Osgoode Society by the University of Toronto Press
Cost: $50.40
Read review(s)
Return to 2004-2008 book list
Description
This volume has been prepared to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Nova
Scotia,
Canada's oldest surviving common law court.
The thirteen essays include an account of the first meeting of the court in Michaelmas Term
(October) 1754
and surveys of the court's jurisprudence.
There are also chapters on the courts of Westminister Hall, on which the Supreme Court was modelled
in the
eighteenth century, and on the courthouses occupied over the two and a half centuries of the court's
existence.
Anchoring the volume are two longer chapters, one on the pre-confederation and one of the modern
period,
which together provide a comprehensive narrative history of the court - a unique contribution to our
knowledge
of the history of Canadian provincial superior courts.
Reviews
A collection of scholarly essays that offers the first comprehensive history of the oldest
superior court
in Canada...
The result is a warts-and-all approach that provides valuable insights into an institution that
affects
the lives of every Nova Scotian. Dean Jobb, Halifax Chronicle- Herald, October 24, 2004
An admirable contribution to Canadian legal historical literature, This collection illustrates how focused treatment of a court ... can generate an historiography of considerable importance. David Bell, Canadian Historical Review, vol 87, 2006
This book is a remarkable tribute to the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. It is a collection of essays that succeeds well at that most challenging of tasks, drawing diverse scholarship together thematically into a digestible whole… The least satisfactory aspect of reviewing a book like this is being entirely unable to do justice to the impressive depth of the research, to the details unearthed by these scholars on the challenges to the court's everyday functioning, to its crises, to the complex interplay of personal, educational, social and jurisprudential influences on the judges, to the jurisprudence they developed in the multiplicity of cases they dealt with over 250 years…. This book will reward … those who are interested in more broad, thematic questions about courts and their development in the colonial and post-colonial context, particularly in the place that has become Canada, with all its diverse influences and homegrown propensities. Lyndsay Campbell, Law and History Review, vol 25, 2007
