RT Article
T1 Taking Depositions at Molong: the Operation of Legal Power in 1850s New South Wales
JF Law, crime & history
VO 11
IS 1
SP 52
OP 81
A1 Byrne, Paula-Jane
LA English
YR 2023
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1860071481
AB Depositions, the initial documents of a criminal case, show the interpretation of their task by magistrates and the extent of policing by constables alongside understandings of law by ordinary people. They also show how the Aboriginal subject was countenanced. Molong magistrates attempted zealous adherence to the requirements of the law but their enthusiasm led to them overstepping their allotted role set out in legal texts and the Justice Acts 1850. Constables also exhibited a similar uncontrolled diligence. Ordinary people imagined law could be manipulated to their own ends, but they did so inexpertly and uncertainly. Molong shows one of the cultures developed around law in the mid-nineteenth century and the sheer malleability of what is understood as law.
K1 Law
K1 Magistrates
K1 Interpretation
K1 Local
K1 Indigenous