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The enlightenment on trial : ordinary litigants and colonialism in the Spanish Empire / Bianca Premo.
Author
Premo, Bianca
[Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/Created
New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2017]
Description
xiii, 361 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Availability
Available Online
Oxford Scholarship - Oxford University Press: History
Copies in the Library
Location
Call Number
Status
Location Service
Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks
KG495 .P74 2017
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Details
Subject(s)
Justice, Administration of
—
Latin America
—
History
[Browse]
Law
—
Spain
—
Colonies
—
History
[Browse]
Summary note
"This is a history of the Enlightenment, the rights-oriented, formalist, secularizing, freedom-inspired eighteenth-century movement that defined modern Western law. But rather than members of a cosmopolitan Republic of Letters, its principal protagonists are non-literate, poor, and enslaved litigants who sued their superiors in the royal courts of Spain's American colonies. Despite growing evidence of the Hispanic world's contributions to Enlightenment science, the writing of history, and statecraft, the region is conventionally believed to have taken an alternate route to modernity. This book grapples with the contradiction between this legacy and eighteenth-century Spanish Americans' active production of concepts fundamental to modern law. [This book offers] insight into how Spanish imperial subjects created legal documents, fresh interpretations of the intellectual transformations and legal reform policies of the period, and comparative analysis of the volume of civil suits from six regions in Mexico, Peru and Spain. Ordinary litigants in the colonies ... sued superiors at an accelerating pace in the second half of the eighteenth century. Three types of cases increased even faster than a stunning general rise of civil suits in the colonies: those that slaves, native peasants and women initiated against masters, native leaders and husbands. As they entered court, these litigants advanced a new law-centered culture distinct from the casuistic, justice-oriented legal culture of the early modern period. And they did so at precisely the same time that a few bright minds of Europe enshrined new ideas in print. The conclusion considers why, if this is so, the Spanish empire has remained marginal to the story of the advent of the modern West."-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Introduction : why is it enlightenment?
Agents and powers : litigants and writers in the courts
Derecho and law : legal enlightenment in philosophy and policy
Numbers and values : counting cases in the Spanish empire
Pleitos and lawsuits : conjugal conflicts in civil courts
Then and now : native status and custom
Being and becoming : freedom and slave lawsuits
Conclusion : why not enlightenment?
Appendix I. Archival methods
Appendix II. Analysis of civil litigation over time.
Show 7 more Contents items
ISBN
9780190638733 ((pbk. ; : alk. paper))
0190638737 ((pbk. ; : alk. paper))
9780190638726 ((hardcover ; : alk. paper))
0190638729 ((hardcover ; : alk. paper))
LCCN
2016041019
OCLC
958141347
Other standard number
99971317642
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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The Enlightenment on trial : ordinary litigants and colonialism in the Spanish empire / Bianca Premo.
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