Article
English, Spanish, Portuguese
ID: <
oai:doaj.org/article:d6635a874a504ef2aadfd91fb3086ca1>
Abstract
Los contemporary legal systems in Latin America are based not only on institutional principles that evolved over four centuries of colonial dominance in Spain and Portugal, but also on the merger of existing institutions arising from previous evolutionary processes. This article develops an analytical framework to study the importance of such processes and to identify the main features of these institutions. It starts with a series of detailed propositions defining the law and its attributes, and puts forward a theory of its legal evolution. It continues with the application of this analytical framework to the context of azteca and inca civilisations, the evolution of the law in the Iberian Peninsula, ending with the most prominent characteristics of Spanish colonial law, which emerged during the colonial domination in Latin America.