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Oidores Letrados and the Idea of Justice, 1480-1570
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
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This article attempts to compare the qualifications ascribed to law graduates who received appointments as oidores (royal judges) with their character and conduct as royal agents charged with the administration of the king's wishes, laws, edicts, and provisions. Because my conclusions are based on the conduct of royal judges serving in the appellate courts of Granada, Española, New Granada, Guatemala, and Mexico in the sixteenth century, this is not a definitive study. More than a thousand judges served in the New World audiencias (high courts) up to 1700. Moreover, judicial reviews (residencias), letters to the Crown, and related materials tend to stress sins of commission or omission rather than the good deeds of the royal magistrates. Sources also reflect differences between royal agents, conflict between royal agents and provincial officials, and the clash between the interests of the Crown, the church, and the colonists. Granted these limitations, enough documentation exists to observe the dichotomy between the administration of justice by magistrates, who were men of flesh and bone, and the idea of the wise and clement judge discharging the royal conscience by making it conform to natural and divine law.
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References
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