La configuración del sistema jurídico hispano en las Islas Filipinas: orígenes y evolución (siglos XVI-XVIII)

Abstract

Attempting once more to contribute to the recovery of historical memory and recall the ties that bound Spain and the Philippines over three centuries, we give a broad outline of the structure of the Global Spanish Monarchy in the Indies, of which the spirit and judicial configuration will be reflected in the distant Archipelago. We analyze the politics of assimilation which, dominated by a missionary sentiment, will be based on the Isles, from the beginnings of modern colonization, in the projection of peninsular institutions and regulations which impose Indian legislation, at the same time we introduce the predominance of recent Royal power represented by Governors and Courts, with basic differentiation of functions, which share, at a lower level, the provincial governors and main magistrates; on the basis of a system of local indigenous organs which ensure equilibrium under the control of the former. In short, an organizational structure dominated by a military and clerical government -both paternalistic and bureaucratic- with a religiously assimilated population but not in a social and cultural respect due to the lack of dissemination of the language and the scarcity of interbreeding.