Foreign law without borders in the early vast America

Abstract

Summary This work addresses the circulation of legal literature from the Hispanic world into the British Atlantic during the 18th century and within the broader context of the Americas. It wants to break free from the dichotomy between British and Hispanic Atlantic by looking at the early Americas as a space where legal literature moved across borders. The case study analyzed in this work is that of the 17th century Spanish jurist Juan de Solórzano Pereira and its circulation in the British Atlantic. By analyzing the writings of a number of legal practitioners from the British Atlantic (such as James Otis, James Abercromby, and Adam Smith), I discuss the extent to which their knowledge of Solórzano’s work showed a transnational approach when discussing the relationship between the thirteen American colonies and their British mother-country. This study calls scholars’ attention to a number of networks of circulation for legal literature that possibly had more influence than has usually been acknowledged on the legal history of the United States of America. Ultimately, the article shows that much is left to discover about the practical, generative, aspects of legal history in an early modern scenario where Europe and the Americas need to be seen in more nuanced and balanced ways.