This essay offers an illustrated overview of the first two centuries of the development of law in Newfoundland. (Labrador was geographically and conceptually far away, and the jurisdiction of St. John’s there was regularly contested by Quebec.) The British sovereign made proprietary grants to persons and corporations in the seventeenth century. All had failed by mid-century, and for almost 150 years thereafter London sought to regulate the Grand Banks, the coastal fishery, and occasional patchy settlement by means of successive charters issued under the royal prerogative. A third measure, regulation by statute in 1791, marked a new initiative. This first court of civil jurisdiction, seasonal, temporary (until 1809) and hesitantly funded and supported, provided the foundation for succeeding acts of judicature and their evolving infrastructure: jurisdiction, courts, procedures and appointments which were the direct predecessors of Newfoundland and Labrador’s present judicial system.
A Flag, An Anthem, A Courthouse tells the story of the construction of the St. John’s Court House between 1901 and 1904 within the political, economic and cultural events of the times. In doing so, it also briefly traces the growth of Newfoundland’s legal system and the various public buildings that housed the judicial establishment prior to 1904.
Like many others, Placentia Courthouse had a clock at the top of it and cells at the bottom. In between there was a courtroom and legal offices. Many people, including local magistrates and prisoners whiled away some of their earthly hours ‘under the clock’. Since records were kept, more or less, this is a history of Placentia using the establishment and operation of the Placentia Courthouse since 1729 as a focus.
The English legal system was formally extended to Labrador for the first time through the Judicature Act of 1824. The Act “for the better administration of justice in Newfoundland” established the Labrador Court which traveled to communities along Labrador’s south coast from July to October each year. The court records examined in this booklet provide insight into the relationships and the disputes that existed among merchants, planters and fishermen. As successful as the Labrador Court reportedly was in deterring lawlessness in the area, the high costs associated with traveling to remote communities made the court controversial from the outset. After operating for only eight years, in 1834 the Labrador Court was cancelled through a bill passed during the first year of Newfoundland’s newly established legislature.
Poetic Justice features 25 paintings by 4 lawyers. Wrapped around them are poems, songs, dramatic scripts, fiction, memoirs and histories judges and lawyers have written, or others have written about them. All of this work demonstrates the seamless web of art and reason that contradicts modern stereotypes.
Thomas Talbot, an Irish emigrant to Newfoundland, came to “Britain’s Oldest Colony” in 1837 and was active in the public life of the colony almost from the time of his arrival. His memoir, “Newfoundland: or, A Letter to a Friend in Ireland in relation to the conditions and circumstances of the Island of Newfoundland with an especial view to emigration”, published first in 1882 and not readily available until this republication, provides an insightful account of ‘the conditions and circumstances’ of his new home on his arrival and over a period of more than forty years. It documents his various contributions to public life as an educator, writer, classical scholar and politician throughout this period. Of special interest to the legal community are his accounts of his time studying for the Bar and his tenure as Sheriff of the Supreme Court Central District from 1872-1898. Talbot’s text is supplemented by many contemporary illustrations.
Christopher English (ed), Barrels to Benches: The Foundations of English Law on Newfoundland’s West Coast, St John’s, 2010
This is the seventh volume since 1991 in a series presenting occasional essays on select aspects of the history of law in Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the most ambitious to date: six substantive essays in 140 pages and 130 illustrations. It was published to mark the opening of a new courthouse with four distinct courts in Corner Brook, the major judicial centre on Newfoundland’s west coast. The new building is the third in a line of resident courts there stretching back to 1878.
Before the permanent establishment of magistrates’ courts on the coast after 1878, there were hesitant, mostly short-lived initiatives – annual brief visits by the supreme court on circuit out of St John’s after 1824 and a magistrate’s court in Bay St George for a few years in the early 1850s. These resulted from three situations: first, the special position enjoyed by France after 1714 (Treaty of Utrecht) which awarded her a jurisdiction on “The French Shore” until 1904; second, the ambitions of the colonial parliament in St John’s which sought territory, status, influence, economic development and legislative preeminence over the interior of the island of Newfoundland and over the treaty coast, ambitions which brought her into conflict with London; and, third, the hopes of permanent residents concerned almost entirely with the challenges of daily life, such as work, income, food, housing, clothing, education, recreation and a modicum of contentment. The residents wanted prompt access to local, consistent and inexpensive justice informed by equity and a humane understanding of the distinctive legal culture which was a product of four centuries of trade and settlement on the island.
Contents:
- Christopher English, Introduction
- Olaf U. Janzen, “The French Shore Dispute”
- Michael Wilkshire, “A ‘Stretch of Authority Too Much for them to Endure’: Messervey v. Tobin (1852)"
- James K. Hiller, “Appointing Magistrates on the French Treaty Shore: The Diplomacy of Caution”
- Christopher English,”English Law on Newfoundland’s French Shore/West Coast, 1824-1939: An Emerging Structure”
- Christopher English, “Diary of a District Magistrate: Andrew Vatcher in Curling and Corner Brook, 1937-1939"
- Christopher Curran and Melvin Baker (eds), “Kevin Barry’s ‘Outport Opinion’: A Memoir of Corner Brook in the 1940s”, to which Justice Clyde K. Wells offers a personal “Epilogue: The Last Dean”