List of tablesAcknowledgments1 Introduction: civil law and madness in transatlantic context2 Suing for a lunatic: lunacy investigation law, 1320-18903 Indefinite mental states: negotiating the legal definition of madness4 Trials of madness: family struggles over property in England5 Care and protection: managing madness in England 6 Atlantic crossing: lunacy law as colonial inheritance7 Family, friends and neighbours: localizing madness in New Jersey8 Asylum in the community: managing madness in New Jersey 9 Orders in lunacy: lunacy investigation law and the asylum reconsidered10 ConclusionBibliographyIndex

Madness on trial presents a powerful reinterpretation of the history of madness. It examines the strong influence of civil law on our understanding of, and responses to, madness in England and in the North American territory of New Jersey, which has not hitherto undergone major academic investigation. Lunacy investigation law had its origins in fourteenth-century England, and grew to encompass trials in lunacy, chancery court proceedings, proceedings in guardianship and trials of traverse. By the eighteenth century, English architects of the civil law had developed a sophisticated legal response to those among the propertied classes who suffered from madness. Moreover, the civil law governing the response to madness in England was successfully exported into several of its colonies, including New Jersey. Drawing on a well-preserved and rare collection of trials in lunacy in New Jersey, Moran reveals the important ties of civil law, local custom and perceptions of madness in transatlantic perspectives, both before and during the asylum era. This book will be highly relevant to scholars interested in the history of law, medicine, psychiatry and madness, and mental illness, as well as to those in the mental health and legal professions concerned about contemporary issues in mental capacity and guardianship.

'James Moran has provided an important addition to the historiography of psychiatry and mental health provision in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His new book contributes significantly to shifting the historical emphasis away from asylums and towards extra-institutional approaches to the card of the insane.'Social History of Medicine'Madness on Trial, introduces a ‘treasure trove’ of an alternative archive, in the form of documents relating to civil proceedings in lunacy from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century New Jersey. [it] is a welcome addition to the history of mental illness, and is a very useful and accessible work for anyone interested in mental health law and community or family practices of care.'Journal of The Historical Association'This is an excellent book: it offers a rich and deep inquiry into the legal and transatlantic histories of lunacy across place and space, also illuminating imperial legal practices around insanity. Moran’s original history provides a new set of insights into the interpretation of insanity through laws, the way law was used by different people, and the translation of imperial law into colonial contexts. This has not been achieved for the transatlantic historical site in such a deliberate and detailed way before now [...] Moran’s historical work is innovative. He makes a variety of new statements of method, purpose, evidence, and interpretation in and across legal and asylum histories. This field of madness, insanity, families, and institutions has a deep and sustained readership and continues to garner interest among students and researchers. Moran’s book also traverses multiple fields and readers, and will bring legal-historical methods and ideas to a wider audience.'Canadian Bulletin of Medical History'Madness on Trial thus offers a rich history of lunacy investigation law as well as points to new resources for scholars studying madness, mental health, and civil law in the pre-asylum era.'William J. Ryan, Journal of Early American History