1. Evaluate the struggles to establish the MetropolitanLondon Police and impact of professional policingon criminal law enforcement. Explain the inadequaciesof the ancient Statute of Winchester based systemas it became apparent in the 18thcentury, and oppositionto the idea of policing and later resistance whenintroduced. Explain how Sir Robert Peel’s principlesof policing reflected utilitarian idea and attemptedtoaddress such concerns, and their enduring relevancein Canada.
2. Examine the role of the Canadian North West MountedPolice in the context of frontier development inlate 19thcentury Canada. Were the Mounties a positiveinstrument of nation-building, ensuring the ruleoflaw, political stability and economic developmentthat better secured Canadian sovereignty? Or weretheMounties a colonizing agent that suppressed Indigenouscultures and livelihoods? Be sure to outline bothpositions as you forward your own argument.
3. Criminal law codification had better prospectsin Canada than in England, although it originatedwithJeremy Bentham’s call for utilitarian criminal lawreform. Explain how rationalizing modernizationsofcriminal law, from Peel’s English Criminal Law Consolidations,1827-32 to Fitzjames Stephen’s DraftEnglish Code, 1880 fell short of Bentham’s call forcomprehensive codification. Assess the CanadianCriminal Code, 1892 as the legacy of these reformefforts. Also explain the particular Canadiancircumstances that favoured codification here, resultingfrom colonial reception and the assertion of theDominion of Canada’s jurisdiction over criminal law,and the influence of the Dominion Consolidationsonthe 1892 Code.
4. The Prisoner’s Counsel Act, 1836 is a key reformin 19thcentury criminal law that transformed thecriminal trial, although it has received less scholarlyattention than the rise of professional policingand thepenitentiary. Examine the circumstances of the large-scaleentry of lawyers into the criminal trial as theprohibition on defence counsel in felony trials wasrelaxed in the 18thcentury, and the continuingresistance to the right to defence counsel. Assessthe significance of the criminal bar on emergenceofthe modern criminal trial, including reference tolawyers’ impact on juries and judges, the accused,criminal procedure and evidence.
5. Why was the Kingston Penitentiary built? Did itreflect the same factors contributing to the rise of the penitentiary in Britain and the USA or particularlocal circumstances? In explaining the context of the Canadian narrative, briefly describe the old systemof punishment (the automatic sentence of death for felony convictions, and the growing reliance on transportationas a ‘release valve’ through conditionalpardons), and the critique of this system by bothutilitarian and humanitarian reformers (ideas ofdeterrence and rehabilitation). Also discuss the influenceof such reform ideas on Upper Canada’slegislature, the impact of Peel’s Consolidations onthe old practices of punishment, and the significanceoftheir adoption here in 1833.
6. Custom topic (with relevant course-related criminal law and historical focus, or a major revision of oneof the above topics). A brief proposal must be emailedto Professor Wright for approval at least one weekbefore the due date (submissions on custom topicsnot approved by Professor Wright in advance of thedue date will not be accepted).
