“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

CHAPTER 5
POLITICAL POWER AND PROPERTY RIGHTS
SHARP FACTIONAL CONFLICTS OVER THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE DEFINED
the political life of important borderlands towns like Alegrete and Salto throughout the
1850s and early 1860s. In each location, borderlands courts served as critical arenas in which
local rivals could publicly express commercial and political associations. They were also
centers for renewed factional violence. Control of the local courthouse marked a faction’s
dominance in a given forum. It also highlighted the centrality of the law in the borderlands
for shaping a host of political and economic relationships. The familiar local institutions and
practices making up the system of borderlands legalities provided a vital source of order for
borderlands inhabitants in a tumultuous world.
Litigation over property rights was a central front in these struggles in and around
courthouses throughout the borderlands. Questions over the scope of these rights involved
the public expression of personal status and factional power. The assertion of private law
rights went to issues at the very heart of borderlands legalities. In each local forum, litigation
over property played an important role in two ways. First, litigation offered a mechanism to
attack the property claims of factional enemies. Legal challenges to ownership could
potentially erode a rival faction’s economic power. This in turn weakened the ability of
opponents to leverage their personal reputations to secure other legal rights. Second, the
power to define property rights offered elites like the Ribeiros, Canabarro and others an
important resource. Defending property claims provided a mechanism to crystallize
reciprocal relationships that were vital to commerce. Securing allies in this fashion then fed
back into local legal conflicts by broadening the ranks of vecinos that could offer evidence in
other legal proceedings. Through their testimony, these witnesses could further bolster a
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