Weekend Roundup

• In the New Republic: Gabriel Rosenberg and Jan Dutkiewicz on the place where the meat industry meets anti-bestiality laws, past and present.

• Catch this virtual event with Ashley Rubin on her forthcoming book, The Deviant Prison: Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary and the Origins of America's Modern Penal System, 1829-1913: Jan.5 at 6-7pm EST. 

• The Wiener Library for the Study of the Nazi Era and the Holocaust, at the Sourasky Central Library, Tel Aviv University, has put some of its collections online, including prosecutions for distributing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the Nazi Justice Collection, which "contains information on the judiciary in Nazi Germany and hundreds of trial transcripts."  N/t: JQB
  

• “The new feature documentary, My Native Air: Charles Evans Hughes and the Adirondacks, co-produced by MDT Publishing and Snarky Aardvark Films, is premiering on-demand in a limited run from January 15th to February 15th, 2021.”  H/t: JQB
  

• Brittany Nichole Adams, Special Collections, Digitization, and Archival Services Librarian, Northwestern University is profiled in the Bright Young Librarians series at FineBooks and Collections.
  

• From the Washington Post's "Made by History" section: Anya Jabour (University of Montana) on why "Referring to female PhDs as ‘Dr.’ promotes equal treatment and values women’s work," including a discussion of trailblazing law reformers (and PhD holders) Sophonisba Breckenridge and Edith Abbott.

• ICYMI:  University of Mississippi fires Garrett Felber, a tenure-track assistant professor in the Arch Dalrymple III Department of History, who has studied the American carceral state. (Mississippi Free Press).  Greg Melleuish on Constitutional History in Australia (Telos Press Podcast).

Weekend Roundup is a weekly feature compiled by all the Legal History bloggers.

ANZLS Program Now Available

Courtoom Scene, Sydney, 1817 (wiki)

The program for the 39th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society, “an intensive 1 day world-wide gathering devoted to law in history” on December 9, is now available here.  The keynote plenary sessions are Joshua Getzler, Oxford University, on “Six Nations of the Grand River, military feudalism, and the roots of ‘honour of the Crown’”; Miranda Johnson, Otago University, on “Reckoning with a Pacific empire state: Race, nation, citizenship and the idea of New Zealand”; and a closing address by Dame Sian Elias, former Chief Justice of New Zealand.

--Dan Ernst

ANZLHS 2020

 [We have the following announcement.  DRE]

39th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society

Join us for an intensive 1 day world-wide gathering devoted to law in history on 9 December 2020, hosted by Event Services at the University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand

Keynote plenary sessions will feature:

Joshua Getzler, Oxford University, on "Six Nations of the Grand River, military feudalism, and the roots of 'honour of the Crown'"

Miranda Johnson, Otago University, on "Reckoning with a Pacific empire state: Race, nation, citizenship and the idea of New Zealand"

A Closing Address by Dame Sian Elias, former Chief Justice of New Zealand

The organisers have accepted 39 individual papers and 7 panel presentations. They will be run in four concurrent parallel sessions throughout the day. The programme will be uploaded to the ANZLHS website page shortly.

The timings will be specified according to the NZDT time zone - which is UTC+13. We have attempted to time presentations so that are as reasonable as possible for the presenters (but will be difficult for some). The conference will begin at 9.00am and conclude at 7.00pm NZDT.

To cover Event Services charges, and to ensure a high quality of digital platform delivery utilising Zoom, Vimeo and Twilio, we are asking all attendees to pay a modest registration fee. In addition, the rules of the ANZLHS require all presenters to pay the Society's 2020 annual subscription. So 'full member registration' applies to presenters who have paid the 2020 Society subscription in advance; 'full non-member registration' applies to presenters (some of whom will have been members in the past) who have not yet paid the 2020 Society subscription. We are waiving registration fees for postgraduate student presenters. The portal for registrations will be launched shortly through the website page. The cost for registration is as follows in $NZ:

Full member registration: $130; Full non-member registration: $ 215; Full-time post graduate presenters: Fee waiver; Attendance only registration: $130

Graduate students are invited to apply for Kercher Scholarships. Five scholarship awards will be made that may adorn your cv even though there is no monetary element to the scholarship this year. Please apply to Katherine Sanders: k.sanders@auckland.ac.nz by 20 November if you have not already applied. Graduate attendees may also wish to enter their paper for the Forbes Society Prize. The Society's peer-reviewed journal law&history will consider submissions from those who present papers at the conference. In the meantime further information about the conference may be gleaned from David Williams: dv.williams@auckland.ac.nz

Gerangelos on Dixon, J., and Australian Nationhood

Peter Gerangelos, University of Sydney Law School, has posted Sir Owen Dixon and the Concept of 'Nationhood' as a Source of Commonwealth Power, which appears in Sir Owen Dixon's Legacy (Federation Press, 2019): 56-79:

Owen Dixon (wiki)

The principal focus of this chapter is to trace from the reasoning of Dixon J, and those whom he influenced, the High Court’s evolving jurisprudence with respect to the concept of “nationhood” as a source of power. A central thesis of this chapter is that it is questionable whether the reasoning of Dixon J in the Cold War Era cases (Sharkey, Burns v Ransley, Communisty Party Case, and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Case) as well as the reasoning in subsequent pivotal executive power cases in the High Court such as AAP and Davis, support the development of an inherent executive “nationhood” power in s 61 of the Constitution. The chapter examines the extent to which the influence of Dixon J, together with the nature of the very issues considered in these cases, come together to influence the outcome of what is often regarded as the most seminal case on executive power in recent years: Pape v Commissioner of Taxation. 

--Dan Ernst

McIntyre and Milne on "Alien" Power in Australia

 Joe McIntyre and Sue Milne, University of South Australia School of Law, have posted The Alien and the Constitution: The Legal History of the ‘Alien’ Power of the Australian Commonwealth:

The identity of a body politic is inevitably intertwined with that of the excluded other. The quintessential political ‘other’ is the ‘alien’. The express constitutional power to regulate ‘naturalisation and aliens’ in s51(xix) has come to be seen as the hook upon which to hang the Commonwealth’s power to regulate Australian nationality and citizenship. Given the Australian colonies were obsessed with exclusions, and the Commonwealth’s roll-out of the White Australia policy as one of its first legislative priorities on immigration, this connexion between alienage and immigration (and thus eventually citizenship) appears inevitable. It is, however, historically wrong. This article argues that the scope and purpose of the ‘aliens power’ has been miscast, and that as a matter of history its true analogue was the races power, not immigration. The power was designed to regulate the domestic disabilities of aliens (and the removal of those disabilities through naturalisation), just as the races power regulates the disabilities of particular classes of persons. Moreover, and contrary to subsequent jurisprudence, the meaning of ‘alien’ at Federation was clear and unambiguous. This article unpicks the history records to understand this purpose and meaning at Federation in a way that challenges our contemporary understanding of Australian identity.

--Dan Ernst

Josev on Australian Histories in Court

An advance copy of Australian Histories and Historiography in the Courtroom, Melbourne University Law Review 43 (2020), by Tanya Josev, a Senior Lecturer and the Co-Director of the Australian Legal Histories Programme, Melbourne Law School, is now available.

This article examines the fascinating, yet often controversial, use of historians’ work and research in the courtroom. In recent times, there has been what might be described as a healthy scepticism from some Australian lawyers and historians as to the respective efficacy and value of their counterparts’ disciplinary practices in fact-finding. This article examines some of the similarities and differences in those disciplinary practices in the context of the courts’ engagement with both historians (as expert witnesses) and historiography (as works capable of citation in support of historical facts). The article begins by examining, on a statistical basis, the recent judicial treatment of historians as expert witnesses in the federal courts. It then moves to an examination of the High Court’s treatment of general works of Australian history in aid of the Court making observations about the past. The article argues that the judicial citation of historical works has taken on heightened significance in the post-Mabo and ‘history wars’ eras. It concludes that lasting changes to public and political discourse in Australia in the last 30 years — namely, the effect of the political stratagems that form the ‘culture wars’ — have arguably led to the citation of generalist Australian historiography being stymied in the apex court.

--Dan Ernst

Melvin Vaniman

Melvin Vaniman (1866-1912), an American adventurer, singer, aeronaut and photographer, had a passion for taking photographs from unusual vantage points such as ship's masts and balloons. Vaniman arrived in Sydney in February 1903 and left Australia in August 1904. During that time he travelled extensively throughout the country.

 Bennelong Point, Circular Quay and Dawes Point, 1904

 

Circular Quay from a ship's mast, 1903

  

Blue Mountains scenery at Leura, 1903

 

Harvesting wheat on Brundah Station, Grenfell, 1903

 

Harvesting wheat, Narramine Station, Narromine, 1903

Source: State Library of New South Wales

Sam Hood

Dog with backpack, 1939

 

Finish, Goulburn-Sydney Dunlop road race, Joseph St, Lidcombe, ca. 1936

 

Skiing and snowfields, ca. 1935

 

Sydney Boys' High School Team, ca. 1925-1940

 

The Syd Roy Lyricals dance band, Wentworth Hotel, Sydney, 1929

Australian Panoramas

Bondi Beach, Sydney, 1922 (photographed by R. P. Moore)

  

McNaughts, ca. 1921

 

Mitchell Library in course of construction, March 1907

 

Weemala, Ryde, ca. 1921

 

Weemala, Ryde, ca. 1921

 

Welwyn, Point Clare, ca. 1921

 

Source: State Library of New South Wales

Vintage Australia

A modern shearer

  

Backstage, Mark Foys fashion parade, Sydney, ca. 1947

 

De Basil Covent Garden Russian Ballet Company on the 

SS Maloja during their Australian tour, September 1938

  

Group of newly arrived immigrants taken 

in Palace Grounds, Sydney, March 1908

 

Stanwell Park showing scrub; bush picnic, 1916

Sam Hood

Chorus rehearses, ca. 1930

 

Sideshow at Royal Easter Show [Tiny Trixie's Cab], Sydney, ca. 1935

 

Soldier's goodbye & Bobbie the cat, 1939-45

 

Theatre Royal chorus, Tamarama Beach, ca. 1938

 

Turner Twins, acrobats, 1937

Rex Hazlewood

Pictures of markets in Sydney, Australia, 1911-16.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Vintage Tasmania

Elizabeth St looking down Melville St. Shows tram advertising Wolfe's Schnapps. 

Shows branch of Bank of Australasia & Gaylor the Jeweller, ca. 1920

 

Elizabeth Street, Hobart - showing J Evans Stables, J Robb the Saddler, 

Patent Agency and Trade Mark Office, ca. 1910

 

Murray Street looking south from Bathurst Street Hobart, ca. 1910

  

Murray Street, Hobart, ca. 1880

 

Procession in Liverpool Street, Hobart, ca. 1900

 

Source: Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office

Sam Hood

 6th Division boards the troopships, 9-10 January 1940

  

Carmen, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 1941

  

 Child performers, ca. 1920s-30s

  

Chorus girls in "Rhonrad" wheels roll across Bondi Beach, ca. 1935

  

 Kangaroo & girls, ca. 1925-45

 

Source: State Library of New South Wales

Guest Post: A Brief History of Australia

Announcing my first guest poster on my blog, @Mariamauva , a colleague and fellow tweep (who also has her very own blog!) , who wrote this post about the history of Australia (yup, she's an Aussie-o-phile !) This is it :

Australia, officially known as the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere, which takes up the majority of the continent Oceania. It was originally inhabited by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, who were thought to have arrived from Asia to Australia during the Ice Age, at around 70,000 BC.

They hunted with wooden spears, and occasionally with stone and bone blades. Alongside to mammals, they hunted snakes, lizards, ducks, parrots, cockatoos and emus. They spoke more than a hundred languages and dialects, and their lifestyle and cultural traditions varied from region to region. Asian and Oceanic mariners were in contact with the indigenous Australians, centuries before the Europeans did.

The flag of the Aborigines

The first recorded European contact was in March 1606 by the Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon (1571-1638). Later that year, the Spanish explorer Luis Vaez de Torres sailed through the region between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Over the next two centuries, explorers and traders sailed across the coastline of the then known "New Holland".

In 1688, William Dampier became the first British explorer to land on the Northwestern coast. However, in 1770, another Englishman, Captain James Cook (1728-1779) further charted the East coast of Australia in a scientific voyage abroad the Endeavour and claimed it for the British Crown.

Britain then decided to use its new lands as a penal colony. The first fleet of 11 ships carried around 1,500 people (half of whom were convicted criminals). The fleet arrived in Sydney Harbour, Port Jackson on 26th January 1788, which is also called Australia Day , celebrated annually (so keep an eye out for it in the upcoming days!).

Penal transportation only came to an end in 1868. Free immigrants started settling in the early 1790s, which is mainly because of the gold rushes and the growth of the wool industry. It was also because of the scarcity of labour, vastness of land and recent wealth based on farming, mining and trade, that made Australia into a land of oppurtunity.

Yet things did not go smoothly at the beginning of the 19th century.

In March 1804, some Irish convicts led by Philip Cunningham took part in a rebellion at Castle Hill. On the 4th of March, they captured a convict station at Parramatte. The next day, they fought against the government soldiers but the rebellion quickly collapsed and the ringleaders (including Cunningham) were hanged.

The Australian Gold Rush !

In 1834, John Batman decided that Melbourne was a good site for making a settlement. The following year, he made a treaty with the Aborigines in which he gave them trade goods for land. The treaty was recognized by the british government, but was disregarded. Nevertheless, Melbourne was laid out in a grid pattern and constructed.

The Aborigines despised the arrival of the Europeans because they drove them off their land. One of the leaders of the indigenous resistance was Pemulwuy, who fought against the British from 1790 to 1802 when he was eventually shot dead.

The spread of European diseases such as Smallpox, influenza and measles devastated the indigenous populations as they had no resistance to the diseases. The intermittent 'warfare' between them continued for several more decades.

Australia was considered to have been officially created in 1901, as a Commonwealth. This was a federation of six states under a singe constitution, with the aim of making Australia a harmonious place, with democratic procedures and the value of the 'secret ballot'.

At the time, the non-indigenous population was 3.8 million and the Aborigines were estimated too have been around 93,000. Three-quarters of the population born in Australia were of English, Scottish or Irish descent. One of the first acts of Parliament was to pass the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, with a particular focus on people with European origins. This withered away after World War II and Australia (in the present day) is now the home of people from over 200 countries.

A recruitment poster for the ANZACs

Even though the male population of Australia was less than 3 million, over 400,000 volunteered to fight for Australia in the first World War. The ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) were sent to Gallipoli (in present-day Turkey, then Ottoman Empire) but were unsuccessful in dislodging the Turks.

It was a failure. They withdrew in 1915, suffering over 8,000 casualties (immortalizing the spirit of the ANZACs).

The period between the two world wars was generally regarded as unstable. Social and economic divisions were widened due to the Great Depression. In 1932, the percentage of unemployment was 29% but it eventually fell to 10% by the late 1930s.

During World War 2, Australia made a significant contribution to the Allied side. The ANZACs were deployed to South Africa. Furthermore, Australia herself was in danger when the Empire of Japan entered the war.

In February 1942, air raids were directed at Darwin (Northern Australia); but on September 1942, the Australian Army was deployed to New Guinea where they pushed back the Japanese forces. Generally, the generation that fought and survived in the war, came back with a sense of pride in Australia's capabilities.

The Island of Mer.

The boom period of Australia was after 1945, when hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants arrived in the post war era. The economy further developed in the 1950s with the introduction of hydroelectric power stations- (the Snowy Mountain Scheme).

The rate of home ownership rose dramatically from 40% in the 40s and to70% in the 59s! Expansion of government social security programs occurred and in 1956, Melbourne hosted Australia's first Olympic games (Sydney hosted the second one in 2000 !)

The Vietnam War in 1965, attributed to an atmosphere of political, economic and social change. Australia had sent troops to Vietnam in the 70s. In 1971, Neville Bonner became the first Aboriginal to become an MP (Member of Parliament), though the turning point of Australian History was in 1992, the Mabo Judgement.

It came upon as indigenous people claimed that the island of Mer belonged to them and not to the crown, the court finally overtuned the idea that Australia was "empty" when the Europeans arrived, and in 1998 the government was forced to ammend the 1993 Native Title Act. As a symbol of reconciliation between the different people of Australia, over 250,000 people walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on 28th of May, 2000.

Today, Australia is a rich country (it stands 13th in economy charts!) with a population of 22 million, 500,000 of which are Aborigines.

BSA Students in Australia and New Zealand

Former BSA students had a major impact on the teaching of classics in England outside Oxford and Cambridge (e.g. Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, London). Three former students held chairs in Australia and New Zealand.

• H. Arnold Tubbs (born c. 1865; Pembroke College, Oxford) worked with this Cyprus Exploration Fund and had to leave during the final season of excavations in Cyprus in 1890 to take up the position of professor of Classics at University College, Auckland, New Zealand.
• William John Woodhouse (1866-1937; The Queen's College, Oxford) had worked on the Megalopolis excavations and then conducted a survey in Aetolia. He was assistant lecturer in Bangor and then lecturer in St Andrews. In 1901 he was appointed professor Greek at the University of Sydney. He was also the honorary curator of the Nicholson Museum of Antiquities (1903-37).
• Cecil A. Scutt (1889-1961; Clare College, Cambridge) had been admitted to the BSA just before the outbreak of the First World War. He was an assistant master at Repton for two terms (1915-16), and joined Military Intelligence in Macedonia; he was invalided out of the army in 1918. In 1919 he was appointed professor of Classical Philology, University of Melbourne (1920-55).