This issue begins with three articles that offer different perspectives on law in colonial settings. The first, by Neil York, is an intellectual history that explores John Lind's analysis of the Declaration of Independence. Focusing in particular on Lind's critique on the theory of natural rights set out in the Declaration, York argues that we should take this eighteenth century thinker's work more seriously. The next article, by Kate Stevens, looks at another colonial project, the Condominium of 1906. In her case study, Stevens explores how this joint French–British effort to annex Vanuatu (then known as the New Hebrides) resulted in a hybrid legal system that included extralegal and formal processes. The article by Binyamin Blum is yet another sort of case study. In it, Blum compares the history of dog tracking in England, South Africa, and Palestine, showing how the challenges of criminal justice in the colonies helped transform dog tracking into a recognized part of forensic science.
The next two articles look at intersections of law and war. In her article, Stephanie McCurry looks at how the experiences in a specific war helped influence the law of war. She traces the ways in which the different roles played by enemy women during the Civil War significantly shaped the combatant–civilian distinction set out by Francis Lieber in his famous code. The next article, by Jordan Stanger-Ross and Nick Blomley, looks at the petitions filed by interned Japanese Canadians during World War II. They unpack those petitions to reveal the ideas of property and its relation to belonging and of justice that they expressed.
Next, an article by Natasha Wheatley moves the reader to the interwar period. Wheatley looks at the ways in which jurists experimented with different metaphors and precedents as they wrestled with the need to recognize new types of legal persons and “non-sovereigns.” The article section ends with a piece by James Donovan. In it, he examines the rise and fall of a particular type of defense summation, the plaidoirie sentimentale, in nineteenth and twentieth century France. Donovan argues that this tool of the defense tells a great deal about shifts in the French criminal justice system and the history of gender and emotion in France.
This issue concludes with a selection of book reviews. We invite readers to also consider American Society for Legal History's electronic discussion list, H-Law, and visit the Society's website at http://www.legalhistorian.org/. Readers may also be interested in viewing the journal online, at http://journals.cambridge.org/LHR, where they may read and search issues of the journal.
