Innocent Infants or Abusive Patriarchs? Spousal Homicides, the Punishment of Indians and the Law in Colonial Mexico, 1740s–1820s

2006 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 793-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
VICTOR M. URIBE-URAN
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
New Spain ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Colonial Mexico ◽  
Complex Combination ◽  
The Law ◽  
Legal Mechanism ◽  
Judicial Treatment

This article examines numerous spousal homicides occurring all over New Spain (colonial Mexico) during the last seven decades of the colonial period. After killing their spouses, sometimes in an extremely brutal manner, a considerable number of the defendants managed to get away with little more than a slap on the wrist. I argue here that this was not due to the fact that written laws were dead letters. After examining general patterns of spousal homicides, I focus on the legal treatment and punishment afforded to indigenous criminals, several of who were drunk at the time of their crimes. Being an ‘Indian’ or committing a crime while drunk – both characteristics of many defendants in the records – were treated as a mitigating circumstance under law and led to the acquittal of several of the accused. Royal graces, an important legal mechanism, also played a significant role in easing the severity of the treatment of these and other domestic criminals. The judicial treatment of spousal murders thus did not reflect a considerable gap between law and practice at the time. Punishment derived from a complex combination of socio-cultural factors and longstanding legal prescriptions, doctrines and traditions.

Afro-Mexican Slave Labor in the Obrajes de Paños of New Spain, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

2003 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank T. Proctor
Keyword(s):  
Labor Force ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
New Spain ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Colonial Mexico ◽  
Textile Mill ◽  
Slave Labor ◽  
Woolen Textile

On April 5, 1723, Juan Joseph de Porras, a mulatto slave laboring in an obraje de paños (woolen textile mill) near Mexico City, appeared before the Holy Office of the Inquisition for blasphemy. According to the testimony of six slaves, including Porras’ wife, while his co-workers prepared to bed down for the night in the obraje Porras had blasphemed over a beating he had received from the mayordomo (overseer) earlier in the day. Señor Pedregal, the owner of the obraje, testified that Porras was one of nearly thirty workers, all Afro-Mexican slaves or convicts, who lived and labored in his obraje without the freedom to leave.The case against Juan Joseph de Porras and dozens of others like it in the Mexican archives raise important questions, not only about the makeup of the colonial obraje labor force, but also about the importance of Afro-Mexican slavery in the middle of the colonial period. Was the Pedregal labor force, composed entirely of slaves and convicts, the exception or the rule within obrajes of New Spain? If it was not exceptional, how important were slaves to that obraje and others like it? What exactly was the demographic makeup of the obraje labor force in the middle of the colonial period? And, how might the answers to those questions change our understanding of the histories of labor and slavery in colonial Mexico?

“BIG-OLD LONG LIPS, BIG-OLD JAR NOSE”: ANCIENT MESOAMERICAN MONSTERS AND CLOWNS AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF CHRISTIANITY IN EARLY COLONIAL MEXICO

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Ben Leeming
Keyword(s):  
New Spain ◽  
Indigenous Population ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Colonial Mexico ◽  
Royal Court ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Transgressive Behavior

Abstract During the early Colonial period, Native writers, working under the aegis of mendicant friars, composed Christian texts in the Nahuatl language as part of the Roman Catholic Church's efforts to indoctrinate the Indigenous population of New Spain. Yet these Native “ghost-writers” were far from passive participants in the translation of Christianity. Numerous studies since the 1980s have demonstrated how Native writers exerted influence on the presentation of Christianity, in effect “indigenizing” the message and allowing for the persistence of essential elements of the Mesoamerican worldview. This article focuses on descriptions of demons and sinners drawn from Nahuatl-Christian texts and argues that Native writers drew on an ancient Mesoamerican repertoire of imagery involving physical deformity and transgressive behavior (the “monster-clown complex”). In pre-contact times, such imagery was associated with specific figures, including Olmec dwarfs, Maya “fat men,” and comic performers attached to the Mexica royal court. In each of these figures, both physical deformity and humor rendered them powerful, liminal beings often referred to as ritual clowns. By drawing upon this “monster-clown complex,” Native writers transformed what were intended to be terrifying motivators of conversion into something very different: morally neutral, supernaturally powerful, and ultimately essential members of the Mesoamerican sacred realm.

The impact of cultural factors on attachment dynamics: a view from Irish society

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-223
Author(s):  
Michael O’Toole
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Emotional Development ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Seamus Heaney ◽  
Irish Society ◽  
Irish Context ◽  
Key Points ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

In this article I examine aspects of the relationship between mothers and sons from an attachment perspective in an Irish context. Through the works of Irish writers such as Seamus Heaney, John McGahern, and Colm Tóibín, I focus on particular aspects of this relationship, which fails to support the developmental processes of separation and individuation in the many men who come to me for psychotherapy. I illustrate key points concerning this attachment dynamic through the use of clinical examples of my work with two men from my practice. While acknowledging that many other cultural factors play a significant role in the emotional development of children, integrating the work of our poets, novelists, and scholars with an attachment perspective

English Foundations of American Law, 1500s–1776

2018 ◽  
pp. 48-74
Author(s):  
John B. Nann ◽  
Morris L. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Case Finding ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Legal Issue ◽  
Good Case ◽  
American Law ◽  
English Law ◽  
The Law

This chapter describes current sources and techniques useful for finding seventeenth- and eighteenth-century laws of England and introduces some methods an attorney in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries might have used. Before researchers can find the law, they must know what was considered to be the source of law in the period being investigated. Reporting, publishing, and finding cases has been important in English law for centuries. Parliamentary enactments during the colonial period also play an important part in the framework surrounding any particular legal issue. Meanwhile, English law is built on a foundation of common law, which is built on case law. As such, finding cases that relate to a particular topic is critical in research. A good case-finding option is a digest of cases; these have been written over the centuries, as have abridgments and treatises on particular areas of law.

scholarly journals ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL REGULATION OF THE FUNCTIONING OF JUVENILE JUSTICE IN THE ENSURING OF CHILD RIGHTS

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (20) ◽  
pp. 77-81
Author(s):  
N. Yu. Veselov
Keyword(s):  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
The Law ◽  
Keywords Child ◽  
Legal Mechanism

Problem setting. Legal regulation is an integral component of the administrative and legal mechanism for ensuring the functioning of juvenile justice, through which the state regulates relevant social relations through law and the totality of legal means. Recent research and publications analysis. The following Ukrainian scientists tried to conceptually solve these issues: Ya. Kvitka, V. Levchenko, O. Maksimenko, N. Lesko, I. Ishchenko, O. Navrotsky. Paper objective. The purpose of the study is to obtain scientific and applied results on the presentation of options for legislative support of juvenile justice in other countries and to formulate proposals for improving the administrative and legal regulation of juvenile justice in Ukraine. Paper main body. The analysis of the legislation of other countries indicates that there are several conditional models of legal regulation of the peculiarities of ensuring the rights of the child in the exercise of juvenile justice. This division is based on the following criteria, such as the existence of a law in the country that establishes the general principles of the judicial and extrajudicial, administrative and legal protection of children’s rights; the existence of a separate law on juvenile justice, which codifies all the rules of law that determine the peculiarities of criminal proceedings against children; the existence of a separate law on juvenile justice, but which establishes the general principles of the operation of juvenile justice, public administration in this area, prevention of offenses, etc. Conclusions of the research. The expediency of adopting the Law on Juvenile Justice in Ukraine, which, in its content, will mainly be an act of administrative and legal nature, the Law «On Ensuring the Rights of the Child in Ukraine», the Law «On the Ombudsman of Ukraine» is substantiated. Keywords: child, minor, legal regulation, administrative law, juvenile justice, justice.

scholarly journals Implementation of the Provisions of the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals into Ukrainian Legislation: Some Theoretical and Applied Aspects

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-45
Author(s):  
Nadiia Kobetska ◽  
Lesia Danyliuk
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Animal Rights ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
European Convention ◽  
General Nature ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Legal Representation ◽  
The Law ◽  
European Standards ◽  
Legal Mechanism

European integration processes in Ukraine have led to the approximation of national legislation to European standards, including pet handling. The first and currently the only ratified European convention in Ukraine on protection and ensuring animal welfare is the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals. The article describes the major doctrinal, legislative and practical aspects of implementing this Convention into Ukrainian law. The legal regulation of the humane treatment of domestic animals in Ukraine is based on the Law of Ukraine on the protection of animals from cruel treatment, its provisions being of a general nature, and detailed solutions are found in other laws and regulations. Detailed rules for dealing with pets are determined by municipalities and they are implemented in the relevant administrative and territorial units. The concept of “animal rights”, despite its proclamation in the preamble to the Law of Ukraine on the protection of animals from cruel treatment, has no formal legal representation and reflection in Ukrainian legislation. Nevertheless, Ukrainian legal academic doctrine, legislative process and law enforcement practice are currently embodying the concept of animal welfare. The development and implementation of a coherent legal mechanism for pet handling is the major contributing factor in achieving pet welfare, therefore Ukraine needs a clear strategy to improve its legal regulation.

scholarly journals MENGEVALUASI HUKUMAN KEBIRI DAN PENTINGNYA FATWA MAJELIS ULAMA INDONESIA

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-85
Author(s):  
Moh Rasyid
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Important Thing ◽  
The Law ◽  
Children Development

Children need protection and guidance from adult people to become a quality generation. Relationship between children and adult people in their surrounding community plays significant role in children development. However, in some case, adult people cause suffering for children such as in the case of child abuse or violence. Meanwhile, the regulation concerning child fails to provide protection for children. Due to the rise of crime against children, President Joko Widodo signed Perppu No 1/2016, later on became the Law no 17/2016, which threatened the actor of child abused to be emasculated. Human right activists and medical experts were opposing the law. Despite the debate between the proponents and the opponents of castration, including among Moslems, the Council of Indonesian Ulama (MUI) did not published fatwa concerning this matter. The most important thing is protecting children from being abused by empowering education and restorative justice.

scholarly journals АДМІНІСТРАТИВНО-ПРАВОВИЙ МЕХАНІЗМ РЕАЛІЗАЦІЇ ПРАВООХОРОННОЇ ФУНКЦІЇ ДЕРЖАВИ

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 218-226
Author(s):  
О. І. Безпалова
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
The State ◽  
Effective Functioning ◽  
The Law ◽  
Legal Mechanism

Розкрито сутність адміністративно-правового механізму реалізації правоохоронної функції держави. З'ясовано основні ознаки, характерні для адміністративно-правового ме­ханізму реалізації правоохоронної функції держави. Визначено перелік елементів, що вхо­дять до цього механізму. Обґрунтовано, що основними системоутворюючими елементами є інституційна та правова складові. Визначено основні кроки в напрямі забезпечення ефек­тивного функціонування адміністративно-правового механізму реалізації правоохоронної функції держави.   The essence of the administrative and legal mechanism for the implementation of the law enforcement functions of the state. Find out the main characteristics of an administrative and legal mechanism for the implementation of the law enforcement functions of the state. The list of items included in this mechanism. It is proved that the main elements of the backbone is the institutional and legal components. The basic steps to ensure the effective functioning of the administrative and legal mechanism for the implementation of the law enforcement functions of the state.

Deception, mistake and non-disclosure: challenging the current approach to protecting sexual autonomy

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-219
Author(s):  
Omar Madhloom
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Sexual Behaviour ◽  
Informed Choice ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Sexual Autonomy ◽  
Decisionmaking Process ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
The Law

English criminal law appears reluctant to criminalise deceptive sexual behaviour. It currently does so only in circumstances where the defendant has actively lied to the complainant regarding a fact recognised by law as crucial to consent. This restrictive approach arguably fails in many cases to protect the complainant’s sexual autonomy. The central argument presented in this article is that all forms of deception, including non-disclosure, a false promise and mistake as to a material fact, may distort the complainant’s decisionmaking process and undermine her ability to make an informed choice. A material fact is one which plays a significant role in a person’s decision to engage in sex. This article advocates that the law of rape should be widened to include mistake on the part of the complainant and non-disclosure by the defendant.

9. Delivering legal services: practitioners, adjudicators, and legal scholars

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Partington
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Private Colleges ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
The Law

This chapter discusses the role both of those professionally qualified to practise law and of other groups who provide legal services but who are not formally qualified as lawyers. It examines how regulation of legal services providers has changed. It notes new forms of legal practice. It considers the adjudicators and other dispute resolvers who play a significant role in the working of the legal system. It reflects on the contribution made by law teachers, in universities and in private colleges, to the formation of the legal profession and to the practice of the law.

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