The Practice of Execution in Canada

Abstract

Ken Leyton-Brown: “The Practice of Execution in Canada”. Ken Leyton-Brown is a member of the Department of History; he teaches Legal and Ancient History. His research focuses on Canadian legal history, and emphasizes themes having to do with the role of law in society: what some have termed external legal history. His most recent work, The Practice of Execution in Canada, examines the way in which capital sentences (i.e. the death penalty) were carried out in Canada, and suggests that practice theory is useful in understanding how execution was used by the authorities as a form of communication. His current project looks at Chinese and the Law in early Saskatchewan.