The opening essay examines the decriminalization of witchcraft in France and inquires as to whether the French experience reflects a European model. Another essay examines an 1835 murder case in the Indian Territories of British North America, which provides an example of a case adjudicated in the context of differing and overlapping legal cultures when there were no formal judicial structures at the point of contact. Other essays analyze Quaker reforms in American criminal justice; policing in London before Peel; the ideological dimensions of law in upper Canada, as demonstrated in the treason proceedings of 1838; and police reform and social reform in Italy from the crisis of the 1890's to the Giolittian era. Two book review essays focus on publications that address the criminal trial jury in England and the history of capital punishment. A conference proceedings review focuses on a 1987 Canadian conference on the Canadian Law in History. Seventeen book reviews feature books published in the 1980's.