Abstract

CUNILL, Caroline. Poor People, Indigenous People, Enslaved People and Personae Misera bilis: a Reflection on Their Lawyers in the Consejo de Indias and the Audiencia de México in the Sixteenth Century. Front. hist. [online]. 2023, vol.28, n.1, pp.15-37.  Epub Jan 01, 2023. ISSN 2027-4688.  https://doi.org/10.22380/20274688.2388.

This article analyzes the lawyers who represented the poor, the slaves, and the Indigenous people in their lawsuits at the Consejo de Indias and the Audiencia de la Nueva España in the sixteenth century. We will highlight the historical context, the political motivations, as well as the theoretical arguments that help explain why the Spanish crown appointed lawyers in charge of representing specific social groups in its higher courts of justice. One of the main objectives is to show how theoretical considerations and experiences circulated on both sides of the Atlantic and led to parallel processes of appointments in the Council of the Indies and the court of Mexico. The article builds on royal normative, appointments, orders of payments, and relations of services and deeds written by the officeholders during the sixteenth century. Diverse lawsuits are also analyzed to highlight how affairs were dispatched among the lawyers of the Council of the Indies and the Audiencia de México.

Keywords : justice; representation; lawyers; Indigenous people.

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