Entre o juiz ordinário e o juiz de fora: execução da justiça local e as ações cíveis de Mariana na primeira metade do século XVIII

Abstract

The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to discuss the administration of local justice in a Municipal Council of Portuguese America and also analyze the agency of its members. For this, we will examine the transition from juiz ordinário to juiz de fora in Vila do Carmo, MarianaMinas Gerais. The hamlet of Ribeirão do Carmo was transformed into a village, in 1771, when the first Municipal Council of Minas Gerais was installed. The court of first instance used to happen in the Municipal Councils through the judgement of the juiz ordinário or the juiz de fora. The juízes ordinários were elected by the "good men" through a process named pelouro, the same election type which used to choose the alderman. As provided by the General Law of the Portuguese Kingdom (Ordenações Filipinas), two juízes ordinários were elected annually and no training was required to take up this office. Meanwhile, the juízes de fora were men that were appointed by the king to serve for three years outside the locality of activity and were men who had legal training at an university and higher jurisdictions. This research focused on the period between 1711 and 1750 because this span involves the first decades of operation of the court of first instance in the analyzed region and also goes through the transition from the position of juiz ordinário to that of juiz de fora, which happened in 1731. In other words, this time period is divided in two: the first is marked by a local officer’s actions (1711-1731) and the second is characterized by the actions of a royal magistrate in the conduct of local justice carried out in the Municipal Council (1731-1750). Therefore, the objectives of this thesis were to analyze: (I) the formation of houses of justice and the evolution of the local judicial apparatus by examining the provisions of offices; (II) the socioeconomic profile of the individuals who served as juízes ordinários and how this reflected in the administration of justice; (III) life’s path of the juízes de fora and the impacts of the arrival of this magistrate in the administration of justice and the jurisdictional spaces; (IV) the daily activities of civil justice, put differently, the participation of judicial agents, procedures, litigation, plaintiffs and defendants through the analysis of civil lawsuits filed in the Cartório do Primeiro Ofício da Casa Setecentista de Mariana. Thus, this work seeks to reflect on the administration of justice in the court of first instance held in the Municipal Council, investigating the impact of the arrival of a royal magistrate and the existing balance between royal rule and local judicial practice.