In the colonial courtrooms of the Amazon, Indigenous voices did more than defend. They redefined the meaning of freedom. André Luís Bezerra Ferreira uncovers how Native communities used memory, kinship, and oral tradition as powerful legal tools to challenge colonial rule. Drawing from overlooked archives like the Livro de Assentos of the Junta das Missões, his work shows that Indigenous peoples were not passive subjects but active negotiators of law and status. Courts became spaces of struggle where terms like ‚captive‘, ‚slave‘, and ‚free‘ were constantly reinterpreted through Indigenous knowledge systems. Oral histories, rituals, and relational ties anchored claims to liberty and protection in a legal world built to exclude them.

Der neue Band der Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte untersucht, wie sich zentrale Rechtsbegriffe wie Urteil, Jurisdiktion, Recht und Gerechtigkeit im Dialog zwischen Rechtswissenschaft und Moraltheologie herausbildeten. Am Beispiel des in Hispanoamerika geltenden Rechts („derecho indiano“) zeigt Orazio Condorelli, wie sich im Zusammenspiel weltlicher und kirchlicher Macht spezifische Formen rechtlicher Ordnung entwickelten. Im Mittelpunkt stehen die mittelalterlichen Wurzeln des „derecho canónico indiano“, die Machtverteilung zwischen Kirche und Krone sowie die Rolle gemischter Gerichtsbarkeiten.

Submissions are now open for a workshop on the Mixed Courts of Egypt, to be held on 23–24 February 2026 at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory. Organized by Dr Michel Erpelding and Aya Bejermi, the event invites reflection on an institution that stood at the crossroads of empire, international law, and everyday justice. Established through treaties between Egypt and 14 Western powers, the Mixed Courts operated for over seven decades with foreign judges and French-inspired legal codes. Their legacy stretches from Cairo to Strasbourg, and still prompts fresh questions today.