In a radical new interpretation of Australia's past, based on exhaustive and detailed analysis of recORD this book shows that the convicts sent to Australia were not professional criminals, but ORD work skills, essential to the forging of a new economy and society. By illuminating the contribution of the convict workers to Australia's economic and social development, a fresh historical understanding of Australia's early history emerges.

The Invisible State is the first major book applying contemporary state theory to Australia. Professor Davidson takes a historical approach, tracing the development of the Australian citizen in the nineteenth century and examining the relationship of the citizen to the state. The book argues that giving the judiciary the last say about matters of state divests the people of ultimate authority and ends the supremacy of the legislature elected by the people.

In this book one of the world's foremost legal historians draws upon the evidence of the canon law, court records and the English common-law system to demonstrate the extent to which, contrary to received wisdom, Roman canon law survived in England after the upheavals of the Protestant Reformation. Clearly and elegantly written, this study is both a companion to and development of Maitland's celebrated Roman Canon Law in Medieval England. It will be of great interest not only to legal and ecclesiastical specialists but to any reader seeking a wider understanding of the constitutional and...

This is the first English edition of a treatise that influenced French thinkers from its publication in 1610 until the end of the ancien regime. In his Treatise of Orders and Plain Dignities, Charles Loyseau set out to harmonize with law his fellow citizens' values and behavior in the crucial sphere of possession and exercise of public power. The introduction to this edition sets this important text in the context of Loyseau's own political thesis and the intellectual milieu of those who administered early-modern France.

This comprehensive survey aims to answer two questions. First, why Australia's eight capital cities are situated where they are, and second, how they were established. Pairs of chapters on each of the state capitals--Sydney, Hobart, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Brisbane--are accompanied by studies of Canberra as federal capital and Darwin as territorial capital.

Woman Suffrage in Australia tells the story of the struggle fro female enfranchisement from the first stirrings of the movement in 1880, as it gained momentum and South Australian women were given the vote in 1894, to the success of the suffragists' campaigns when the vote was granted in 1902 Commonwealth.

Convict Maids looks at female convicts transported from Britain and Ireland to New South Wales between 1826 and 1840. Deborah Oxley refutes the notion that these women were prostitutes and criminals, arguing that in fact they helped put the colony on its feet. Analyzing their backgrounds, Oxley finds that they were skilled, literate, young and healthy--qualities exploited by the new colony. Convict Maids draws on historical, economic and feminist theory, and is impressive for its extensive and original research.

Australia has always imported overseas technology, largely out of necessity, but has this been exploitative, fostering a relationship of dependence, or used to Australia's advantage? Jan Todd explores this question in the context of nineteenth-century science. In her important study, Todd argues that the technology transfer was far more complex than has been widely acknowledged. She shows that technology systems reflect national characteristics, institutions and priorities, drawing general conclusions about Australian science and technology in an imperial context. Much of the book is devoted...

This book is the first systematic study of assisted emigration from Britain to Australia during the inter-war years. It looks at the British and Australian politicians and bureaucrats involved in the program and the half-million migrants who uprooted themselves. Both governments used migration to meet their different needs, with little regard for the migrants themselves. Not only is the book an important study of imperial relations in the 1920s and 1930s, it describes an important and overlooked aspect of Australian political and social history.

This book explores the relationship of a colonial people with English law and looks at the way in which the practice of law developed among the ordinary population. Paula Jane Byrne traces the boundaries among property, sexuality and violence, drawing from court records, dispositions and proceedings. She asks: What did ordinary people understand by guilt, suspicion, evidence and the term "offense"? She illuminates the values and beliefs of the emerging colonial consciousness and the complexity of power relations in the colony. The book reconstructs the legal process with great tetail and...