Foreign Law Without Borders in the Early Vast America. Spanish Legal Literature in 19th Century North America

Abstract

By studying some case studies, this article shows how the works of some Spanish jurists from the 17th and 18th centuries were used in the 19th century, both in Britain and also overseas in the British Atlantic (from Washington to California, passing through Florida), to solve judicial conflicts about land and exploitation. The reader will see to what extent some unexpected sources of law were intertwined into the daily practice of North American courts. Such entanglements are at the very heart of the comparative analysis of the field of legal history.