This is an original if idiosyncratic contribution to the understanding of the uses of law and its role in the life of the mixed convict and free communities of early New South Wales. The subject has been of increasing interest to historians in recent years, most notably in David Neal's The Rule of Law (1991), but it must be said at the outset that nobody has yet aspired to the detailed treatment that Paula Byrne devotes to the subject. The book demonstrates both the attractions of the microscopic view and its real limitations.