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The Mounties as Vigilantes: Perceptions of Community and the Transformation of Law in the Yukon, 1885-1897

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2024

Thomas Stone
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Abstract

The transformation of law in the Yukon attendant upon the arrival of the North West Mounted Police and their successful attempt to eliminate the authority of the miners' meeting in the district is reviewed. In this instance, it appears that the symbolic as distinct from the instrumental functions of law led to the acceptance of a fundamental change in the character of local legal institutions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , Fall 1979 , pp. 83 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 The Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

*

I would like to record my thanks to Bill Oppen and the staff of the Yukon Territorial Archives, Whitehorse, Y.T., and to Elinore Vorse, Kathy LaClair, and the staff of the Crumb Library, Potsdam, New York for their help in carrying out the research which is partially reported here.

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