Description
Book SynopsisEmpire of Law shows how seventeenth-century Indian claimants, by litigating and petitioning before Mexico City tribunals, became full participants in an early modern cosmopolitan legality that gave rise to a colonial politics of justice that struggled, with some success, against the utter degradation of subject peoples.
Trade Review"This book should become required reading for anybody wishing to make sense of legal relations, adaptation and resistance in the early New World and similar colonial contexts. It is a truly major tour de force." -- Victore M. Uribe-Uran *
Journal of Latin American Studies *
"This is the best study I've seen of how justice actually functioned in colonial Mexico. The key to Owensby's achievement is that he does not treat the law as an impartial and impersonal set of rules, but rather as an arena of contestation." -- R. Douglas Cope * Brown University *
"What makes Owensby's study so fresh is that he does not focus so much on imperial laws, kings' decrees, and viceregal regulations as on actual cases brought before the famous Juzgado Genreal de Indios (the Indian Court) from 1590 to 1700. Here is the law at its bare-knuckle, rawest edge, where an aggrieved community seeks redress. Trained as a lawyer himself, Owensby teases out of his sources a world where Native villages were not helpless victims, but actors in protecting their interests from outsiders and rogue insiders...Highly recommended." --
CHOICE"
Empire of Law and Indian Justice in Colonial Mexico is a compelling work that offers a new approach to the relations between indigenous peoples, their king, and his representatives and to the different meanings of law in the colonial context...Well crafted and clearly written, this work offers a fascinating view of seventeenth-century Mexican society that will engage its reader regardless of specialization." --
H-Net"This work is reliable and contributes to the history of law at home and abroad in colonial times." -- Leonard Ashley *
Bibliotheque d'humanisme et renaissance *
"Owensby's careful research, lively writing, and persuasive argument make this book a real winner, suitable for specialist and student alike. This book is a 'must read' for those interested in Latin American history, comparative colonialism, or indigenous studies." -- Charles Cutter *
American Historical Review *
"The book gives us a wealth of interesting legal cases and thought-provoking analysis, and it is well worth reading." -- Caterina Pizzigoni *
The Americas. *
Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgments 000 Chapter 1 Opening 000 Chapter 2 Ordering the Circumstances of Encounter 000 Chapter 3 Help Us and Protect Us 000 Chapter 4 Precarious Possessions 000 Chapter 5 Liberty, Not Servitude 000 Chapter 6 Of Guilt and Punishment 000 Chapter 7 Voices in the Republic 000 Chapter 8 Rebellious Subjects 000 Chapter 9 Summation and Beyond 000 Notes 000 Sources Cited 000 Index 000
