This article examines the development of employer liability for workplace injuries in Ontario, Canada, between 1861 and 1900. In the earliest cases, the judiciary slavishly followed English common law precedent, which effectively prevented injured workers from successfully suing their employers....

This article is part of a larger study of the recurrent dilemmas that arise when protective labor law conflicts with the norms of capitalist legality. In this particular case, shareholder liability for unpaid workers' wages was first enacted in mid-nineteenth century New York State as a...