Abstract

ALTABLE, Francisco. Death for those who kill without any right to do it. Story of a criminal procedure in the frontier of New Spain. Estud. hist. novohisp [online]. 2017, n.57, pp.45-60. ISSN 2448-6922.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehn.2017.07.001.

There is a common idea that the administration of justice in most of New Spain, in addition to slow and outdated, had judges generally incompetent and ignorant of the law. This paper attempts to show that this has to be put into context and not always fits the reality; there were provinces where judges employed texts of primary legislation and not just common sense and manuals for apprentices. The criminal case exposed in the following pages is an example of it, as well as the technical relations between local and central justice administrations in New Spain.

Keywords : Lawsuit; Homicide; Baja California; Justice; Ordinance.