Spain's colonial rule rested on a judicial system that resolved conflicts and meted out justice. But just how was this legal order imposed throughout the New World? Cutter draws on over 600 civil and criminal cases to re-create the procedural and ethical workings of the law in two of Spain's remote colonies -- New Mexico and Texas in the eighteenth century.
The first comprehensive overview of the workings of the Spanish legal system in colonial New Mexico and Texas.
