Juridical encounters : Māori and the colonial courts, 1840-1852 / Shaunnagh Dorsett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dorsett, Shaunnagh, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Law--New Zealand--History--19th century.

Law.

Courts--New Zealand--History--19th century.

Courts.

Māori (New Zealand people)--Legal status, laws, etc--History--19th century.

Māori (New Zealand people).

Colonization.

History.

Māori (New Zealand people)--Legal status, laws, etc.

New Zealand--Colonization--History--19th century.

New Zealand.

New Zealand Region.

Kōrero nehe.

Local Subjects:

Kōrero nehe.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

x, 317 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Auckland, New Zealand : Auckland University Press , 2017.

Summary:

"From 1840 to 1852, the Crown Colony period, the British attempted to impose their own law on New Zealand. In theory Māori, as subjects of the Queen, were to be ruled by British law. But in fact, outside the small, isolated, British settlements, most Māori and many settlers lived according to tikanga. How then were Māori to be brought under British law? Influenced by the idea of exceptional laws that was circulating in the Empire, the colonial authorities set out to craft new regimes and new courts through which Māori would be encouraged to forsake tikanga and to take up the laws of the settlers. Shaunnagh Dorsett examines the shape that exceptional laws took in New Zealand, the ways they influenced institutional design and the engagement of Māori with those new institutions, particularly through the lowest courts in the land. It is in the everyday micro-encounters of Māori and the new British institutions that the beginnings of the displacement of tikanga and the imposition of British law can be seen"--Back cover.

Contents:

Introduction

Juridical Encounters

PART I: WHOSE LAW? WHICH LAW?

1. Preliminary Matters

2. Metropolitan Theorising: Amelioration, Protection and Exceptionalism

3. Amenability to British Law and Toleration: The Executive and Others

4. Common Law Jurisdiction over Māori: Three Cases

5. Conclusion

PART II: DESIGNING EXCEPTIONAL LAWS AND INSTITUTIONS

1. Hobson and Clarke: 'Native' Courts

2. FitzRoy: The Native Exemption Ordinance 1844

3. FitzRoy: Unsworn Testimony

4. Grey: The Resident Magistrates Courts 1846

PART III: JURIDICAL ENCOUNTERS IN THE COLONIAL COURTS

1. Preliminaries: Courts and Data

2. Offices: Protectors, Lawyers, Interpreters

3. Crime

4. Suing Civilly: The Resident Magistrates Court and the Office of the Native Assessor

The Displacement of Tikanga

A Brief Jurisprudential Afterword

APPENDIX I: A Note on Court Data

APPENDIX II: Court Structure in the Colonial Period

APPENDIX III: Māori before the Superior Courts

APPENDIX IV: Māori before the Resident Magistrates Court for Civil Matters inter se in Auckland and Wanganui

APPENDIX V: The Provinces

Abbreviations

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781869408640

1869408640

OCLC:

990566870