Contents:
1 - Law, Colonization, Legitimation, and the European Background/By Anthony Pagden;
2 - The Law of Native Americans, to 1815/By Katherine Hermes;
3 - English Settlement and Local Governance/By Mary Bilder;
4 - Legal Communications and Imperial Governance: British North America and Spanish America Compared/By Richard Ross
5 - Regionalism in Early American Law/By David Konig
6 - Penality and the Colonial Project: Crime, Punishment, and the Regulation of Morals in Early Americapp 178-210/By Michael Meranze;
7 - Law, Population, Labor/By Christopher Tomlins;
8 - The Fragmented Laws of Slavery in the Colonial and Revolutionary Eraspp 253-287/By Sally Hadden;
9 - The Transformation of Domestic Law/By Holly Brewer;
10 - Law and Religion in Colonial America/By Mark McGarvie, Elizabeth Mensch;
11 - The Transformation of Law and Economy in Early America/By Bruce Mann;
12 - Law and Commerce, 1580–1815/By Claire Priest;
13 - Law and the Origins of the American Revolution/By Jack Greene;
14 - Confederation and Constitution/ By Jack Rakove;
15 - The Consolidation of the Early Federal System, 1791–1812/By Saul Cornell, Gerald Leonard;
16 - Magistrates, Common Law Lawyers, Legislators: The Three Legal Systems of British America/By James Henretta;
Bibliographic Essays;
Notes on Contributors;
Index.