Using the career histories of judges who challenged the system, Dewigged, Bothered, and Bewildered illuminates issues of judicial tenure, accountability, and independence throughout the British Empire.

John McLaren is a professor emeritus in the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria.

Jeffrey B. Robb:

‘McLaren’s work is a wonderful contribution to English legal history that will be of great value to both legal scholars and more general students of the British Empire.’

Patrick J. Connors:
‘McLaren is to be congratulated for coherently tying together the experience of a dozen colonies over a full century… the author has done a good job showing how the quirks and oddities of these individual judicial characters have the potential to reveal a great deal about the inner workings of the imperial project.’

Philip Girard:
‘McLaren’s book provides a rigorous and fascinating account of how the Colonial Office exercised its disciplinary authority over colonial judges… McLaren’s empire-wide comparative approach allows us to observe imperial political, legal, and social networks in play.’