Accusing before Criminal Law

Professor Mark Antaki invites you to a Michel Proulx Workshop with George Pavlich, Professor of Law and Sociology, and Canada Research Chair in Social Theory, Culture and Law at the University of Alberta.

Abstract

Referring to an early example of criminal accusation in 'Alberta', circa 1874-1884, this presentation will refer genealogically to accusatory gateways that subjected 'individuals' to settler-colonial forms of criminalization.

In the name of Dominion criminal justice, these gateways defined targets within, and jurisdiction over, forms of life by individualizing complex socio-political and cultural conflicts. Legal requirements for accusers and accused to avow 'truths' in specific ways translated complex stories of everyday life into constricted legal narratives.

Professor Pavlich's talk will explore these accusatory gateways as foundations to settler-colonial criminalization, and conclude by highlighting implications for expansive and unequal criminal justice institutions that nowadays confront us so omnisciently.