TORRES AGUILAR, MANUEL
This book examines a criminal proceeding in the second half of the eighteenth century processed in the Royal Audiencia of Mexico, by the residents of a nearby location of Mexico, against the Mayor. The set of allegations is so serious, and such abuses are committed against the inhabitants that the suspension of the exercise of his office was determined to educate the whole cause. However, the highlight of the process is the handling of all procedural ways for delaying the procedure conducted by him. It allows us knowing the current procedural law and the operations that made some judges, lawyers, prosecutors, officials, etc., sometimes for their own benefit and to the distinct detriment of their trade and the role they were entrusted. In most of the alleged crimes against him, the spirit of unjust enrichment is involved, which raises once again the question of the use that some bailiffs from their office made to get their wages supplements to justify the investment involved in the purchase of the trade. In any case, the severity and variety of such crimes committed by the Mayor, offer an illustrative example of a wrongdoing which deserved a greater hardness on the performance of the Royal Audiencia. The reader will go through every step of the process feeling the fact from the coldness of a document drafted with an exquisite precision.
Manuel Torres Aguilar (1963), is Tenured Professor of Law History and Institutions of the University of Cordoba (Spain), where he teaches the subjects of Law History and Conflict: past and present and its resolution techniques. He is Director of the UNESCO Chair in Conflict Resolution at this University. In 1993 he was given an Extraordinary Doctorate Award. He has developed research stays at the Institüt für österreichische und deutsche rechtsgeschichte of University of Vienna together with Professor Werner Ogris; at the Istituto di Storia del Ditritto of the University of Catania under the leardership of Professor Manlio Bellomo; and at the Istituto di Storia del Diritto of the University of Perugia under the leadership of Professor Alessandro Giuliani. He was guest lecturer in the Department of World Studies of Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond VA). He is Permanent member of Institute of History of Indiano Law and Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti de Messina (Italy) and Corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation. His main research topics are history of criminal law, history of the Inquisition, history of public administration and, currently, history of conflicts and culture of peace. He has published four monogrpahs, over fifty articles. He was Substitute Judge and Vice-rector of University of Cordoba and International University of Andalusia. He is Secretary of the YearBook of History of Law of the Ministry of Justice.
