Christopher P. Curran, the committee’s co-chair, explains that the nine essays that make up "The Face of Justice on Newfoundland’s Northeast Coast," a recent work, "show not only that the sources of law and the level of justice activities varied as demographic, social and economic conditions changed throughout this period" – the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century – "but that the law and its institutions formed an integral part of the fabric of everyday community life and were valued as such."