The Cambridge History of Latin American Law in Global Perspective

Covering the precolonial period to the present, The Cambridge History of Latin American Law in Global Perspective provides a comprehensive overview of Latin American law, revealing the vast commonalities and differences within the continent as well as entanglements with countries around the world. Bringing together experts from across the Americas and Europe, this innovative treatment of Latin American law explains how law operated in different historical settings, introduces a wide variety of sources of legal knowledge, and focuses on law as a social practice. It sheds light on topics such as the history of indigenous peoples’ laws, the significance of religion in law, Latin American independences, national constitutions and codifications, human rights, dictatorships, transitional justice and legal pluralism, and a broad panorama of key aspects of the history of statehood and law. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Thomas Duve is a director at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory and Professor of Comparative Legal History at Goethe University, Frankfurt. An expert in European and Latin American legal history, he specializes in the history of law and religion in a global perspective.

Tamar Herzog is Monroe Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs at Harvard University and an affiliated faculty member at Harvard Law School. She is a legal historian of Spain, Portugal, and their overseas territories, having worked on colonial administration, penal justice, scribes, citizenship, land rights, and territorial conflicts.