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Editors --- "Symposium on 'Property, Authority and the Criminal Law" [2006] AULegHist 5; (2006) 10(1) Legal History 13

SYMPOSIUM ON ‘PROPERTY, AUTHORITY AND THE CRIMINAL LAW’

There have been many changes in the methodology, approach and concerns of legal-historical writing in the last thirty years. The 1970s saw a vibrant body of work produced in England and other English-speaking countries on the relationship between law and history. That scholarship was influenced by a range of methodological and political approaches. There was not only a robust engagement between proponents of Marxist interpretations of law and history and more traditional adherents of narrative history and positivistic legal analysis, but there were deep divisions within Marxism itself. In the early twenty-first century, there are few students, alas, who are aware of, much less are engaged by, the intensity of debate surrounding the historical writings of E.P. Thompson, for example. Yet the legacy of that period has been profound. The vibrant and rich literature of works examining the relationship between law and history that has emerged in the last thirty years owes much to the vitality of the scholarship of the 1970s. History “from the bottom up”; studies of law in context rather than legal doctrine in abstract; issues of class, race and gender; and interdisciplinary methods of analysis are now embedded in many of the articles published in journals of law, history and legal history. While individual works of English language legal-historical scholarship from the 1970s may be read less frequently these days, one article in particular stands out for its ability to still engage scholars and students in the twenty-first century. That article is Douglas Hay’s ‘Property, Authority and the Criminal Law’, in Douglas Hay, Peter Linebaugh and EP Thompson (eds), Albion’s Fatal Tree: Crime and Society in Eighteenth-Century England (1975) 17-63.

In February 2006 I was privileged to attend a symposium on ‘Property, Authority and the Criminal Law’ at the Toronto Legal History seminar, at the University of Toronto Law School. That seminar series, which has been organized by Professor Jim Phillips for a number of years, represents everything that is admirable about academic collegiality and intellectual engagement. On the night, three Canadian scholars, John Beattie, Jim Phillips and James Muir spoke about the impact and importance of Hay’s article, and Douglas Hay replied to their addresses before responding generously to questions from the audience. While listening to the speakers I was struck by how the event represented the voices and perspectives of three generations of legal historians (Beattie, who Hay learnt from, Phillips, who Hay is a contemporary of, and Muir, who Hay taught). Over dinner at the pub afterwards (a highly civilized part of the evening seminar series) I encouraged the speakers to commit their words to paper, so that a wider audience might experience the magic of that night, and have an opportunity to reflect on the issues that were raised. The following contributions by Beattie, Phillips, Muir and, of course, Douglas Hay, are the result.

Andrew Richard Buck

Editor