Laws and Societies in the Canadian Prairie West, 1670-1940 examines the legal history of the north-west frontier, from the earliest years of European-Native contact in the seventeenth century to the mid-1900s. Challenging myths about a peaceful west and prairie exceptionalism, the book explores the substance of prairie legal history and the degree to which the region's mentality is rooted in the historical experience of distinctive prairie peoples.

The chapters, written by a cross-section of established and emerging scholars working in the allied fields of law, legal history,...

How is modern-day thinking about crime different from that of previous centuries? What are the similarities and differences in attitudes and systems between the civil and common law societies of Europe and North America? These and other questions were addressed at an international conference on crime and criminal justice at The University of Calgary attended by historians, professors of law, judges, and criminologists.

The essays in Part I consider the evolution of criminal law doctrine, and those in Part II analyse the theory and measurement of crime in the past and at present....