Law of the “Indies”(colonial heritage)

Last updated 03 Oct 11

Latin American Law

Spanish pedigree 250BC – 710AD

Romanlaw

Fuerojuzgo

Moorishlaw

Visigothlaw

Customarylaw

Alhambra

Spanish pedigree 710AD – 1492AD

CorpusJuris

Civilis

SietePartidas

Moorishlaw

Encomienda

Customarylaw

FueroReal

Fueros

Canonlaw

Why study colonial law?

“Despite the new constitutions and codes that followed independence, general attitudes towards law continue to be conditioned by the colonial heritage … bureaucratic confusion, administrative delay, mistrust of government officials, and disrespect for law.”

Keith S. Rosenn(Univ of Miami)

What is colonial lawin Latin America?

Recopilacion(1567, 1680, 1805)

Council of the Indies (1614)• Viceroys• Captains general• Audiencias (judges)• “The Church”• Corregidor• Cabildos (?)

Minister of the Indies (1714)

Peru

NewSpain

Nueva Granada

Rio de laPlata

The Viceroy

Francisco de Toledo (1569-1581) Why does LatAm call

for strong leaders?

Real y Supremo Consejo de las Indias

“I obey but donot execute”

The modern administrative state?

Spanish colonial law …

Sietepartidas

New Recompilation

(1567)

Sources of private law“hodge-podge”

Recompilation(1680)

(9 books / recompiles400,000 cedulas) Newest

Recompilation(1805)

Fuero Juzgo

Fueros reales

Ord. DeAlcala

Leyes de Toro

Sources of public law“royal authority”

Book I Religious affairsBook II Consejo o Junta de Guerra de Indias,

Indies Council, Audiencias, Cancillerias,

Juzgados,Orden de prelacion de la legislacion.

Book III Virreyes, Capitanes GeneralesBook IV Discoveries, Mines, CabildosBook V Corregidores, Alcaldes, PleitosBook VI Indios, encomiendasBook VII Delitos y Penas, “Felonies and

punishment”Book VIII Taxes and contributionsBook IX Casa de Contratacion

How did Spain claim indigenous lands?

Ordenamiento de Alcala1. Accursius glosses 2. Bortolus commentaries3. Canon law 4. Custom5. Opinion of doctors 6. Reason (natural law)7. Roman law8. Royal fuero9. Siete partidas

Siete partidas

Roman law Canon law

Opinions

Accursius

Bortolus

if sinif reason

Custom

Royal fuero

Alcalá de Henares

Corpus Juris Civilis

Siete partidas

Derecho patrio

What did lawyers study?(what language?)

Imperialiuminstitutionum

Commentarius(Vinnius)

Corpus Juris Civilis

Why no self-government? (peninsulares vs. creoles)

Law's failure in Latin America is the standard background for projects of law reform over the past half century.

They measure shortcomings based on legal constructs often incommensurate with local arrangements.

As a result, no amount of simple law reform can undo such a constant and irrepressible image of failure.

Viewed this way, Latin America's failed law … denies much of any value to existing law anywhere in the region.

Consequently, this failed law formula for reform is a harmful device.

Prof. Jorge EsquirolFlorida Int’l – College of Law

Taryn Kadar

… the colonies in general owe little or nothing to any care of ours, and that they are not squeezed into this happy form by the constraints of watchful and suspicious government, but that, through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own way to perfection …

Edmund BurkeHouse of Commons (1775)

Sam Wellborn

Relevance ofNapoleon?

Portuguese colonial law …

Ordenacoes• Alfonsinas (1446)• Manuelinas (1521)• Filipinas (1603)

Brazilian Civil Code (1917)

Treaty of Tordesillas

(1494)

San Paolo

No compilationsof public law!

End

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico ~ US Constitution?

"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? … History will answer the question."

Thomas Jefferson1st Inaugural, 1801

The Iberian conquest fostered a common legal experience in Latin America.

This heritage, however, was tainted by • an ineffective and self-serving administration

characterized by over-regulation and under-compliance,

• which left a legacy of administrative stagnation, bureaucratic confusion, institutional mistrust, and disrespect for the law

• that continues to condition general responses and attitudes towards the law throughout Latin America.