The relevance of lawyers and jurists in the process of state-building in
nineteenth-century Latin America has been widely acknowledged. This
collection of essays assembles a series of studies dealing with the
interaction between the legal world and the wider political, economic,
social and cultural processes in which the transition from colonial
status to independent nationhood took place. Rather than viewing this
transition as a radical transformation of judicial institutions and
practices, emphasis has been put upon the continuities between those two
phases. The chapters range from general overviews of both colonial and
republican Spanish America to more detailed case studies of Mexico,
Brazil and Argentina. contributors include: Linda Arnold, Virginia Tech;
Osvaldo Barreneche, Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Argentina;
Charles R. Cutter, Purdue University; Thomas H. Holloway, Cornell
University; Victor M. Uribe, Florida International University.