Situating this work in the “the middle period,” Barreneche analyzes the development of the legal system in the late colonial and early national periods in Buenos Aires. This period was characterized by both continuity of colonial legal traditions and republican “experimentation.” With the abundant use of primary sources, the author convincingly demonstrates that this combination of continuity and change was crucial in shaping Argentina’s modern juridical system.
Barreneche builds on the Argentine tradition of legal history in dialogue with authors like Ricardo Levene and Emilio Ravignani and incorporates the theoretical framework of subaltern studies into the subject. The author is not only concerned with analyzing the formal transformations of legal codes but also with the internal dynamics of the judiciary and the tensions between the judiciary and the executive branches of the state. By focusing on the internal tensions of the state, Barreneche demonstrates the contradictions between its theory and...
