Corruption and Justice in Colonial Mexico, 1650–1755

Abstract

Empire of Justice introductionCorruption today is a crucial concern for Latin America, and many nations have relatively clear definitions of the crime on the books. Yet corruption in the Spanish empire from roughly 1492 to the early 1800s differed. Theologians, legal experts, and laypeople debated the meaning and boundaries of corruption, and the limits of gift giving and bribery were malleable to some degree. Jurists weighed various judicial sources to assess the crime, as the crown was not the only authority producing rules. Instead, Spaniards appreciated the Roman and the canon (Church) law and their manifold interpreters. Their doctrines had to conform to natural law, which was essentially reason, as past generations understood that notion. In addition, the maxims revealed in the Bible coexisted with the royal mandates, such as the Law of the Indies (law for Spanish America), and the local customs, including the indigenous traditions.Latin American historians have always paid attention to canon and royal law and local customs, though English-speaking Latin Americanists have preferred focusing on social practices. Scholars, largely outside the United States, have also analyzed the actions of social networks composed of patrons and clients. Their contributions have greatly advanced our knowledge about justice in New Spain (colonial Mexico), although they have often overlooked the working of the law. Meanwhile, legal scholars have skillfully traced changing judicial concepts but often neglected their application in trials "on the ground." 1 This chapter focuses on the shifting definition of legality, because the Roman and canon laws (leges) constituted a crucial part of justice and were not strictly speaking theology. In Frontiers of Possession: Spain and Portugal in Europe and the Americas (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), 262, Herzog modifies this view in that in "all these dynamics, law mattered to an enormous degree." According to Yannakakis, The Art of Being, 118, "decisions of individual local magistrates rather than judicial precedent and previous case decisions determined the enactment of justice," and "justices ruled based on specific enactment or codified clause." Owensby, Empire of Law, 45, maintains that there were three main aspects of justice, the "derecho … the legal order ensuring 'good government,' the published ley, and the customs"; while Bianca Premo, "Custom Today: Temporality, Customary Law, and Indigenous Enlightenment," HAHR 94, no. 3 (2014): 355-380, traces innovations among the customs. Legal scholarship on the European ius commune is vast and often high quality; just to cite a few examples,

Introducción: Los imperios ibéricos. Cambios, negociaciones desiguales y autoridad

“…A decir de estos autores, los virreyes negociaron con las élites en sus cortes, 15 y beneficiaron a sus criados y a los americanos leales, aunque a finales del siglo XVII el padronazgo virreinal dio paso a un mayor poderío real. 16 Incluso el análisis cultural supone que en este periodo las celebraciones de los monarcas eclipsaron los rituales virreinales en el conjunto de un estado más unificado. 17 Falta aclarar ¿qué significaba la negociación dentro de un imperio?…”