Acordada

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Acordada

Acordada, an enforcement and judicial agency established in New Spain provisionally in 1710 and officially in 1722. Staffed by a salaried captain-judge and a small group of subordinates, it drew its unsalaried agents from landholders, merchants, and their retainers who concentrated on property crimes, notably banditry. Initially operating in rural areas, it extended its jurisdiction to cities in 1756. In 1772 the Juzgado de Bebidas Prohibidas, charged with suppression of illegal intoxicants, came under its supervision. The organization maintained its own prison and sentenced offenders with little interference. It was extinguished by the Constitution of 1812's prohibition of independent judicial organizations.

See alsoBanditry; Judicial Systems: Spanish America.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alicia Bazán Alarcón, "El Real Tribunal de la Acordada y la Delincuencia en la Nueva España," Historia Mexicana 13, no. 3 (1964): 317-345.

Colin M. Mac Lachlan, Criminal Justice in Eighteenth Century Mexico: A Study of the Tribunal of the Acordada (1974).

Additional Bibliography

Barrios, Feliciano, ed. El gobierno de un mundo: Virreinatos y audiencias en la América hispánica. Cuenca, Ecuador: Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha: Fundación Rafael del Pino, 2004.

                                       Colin M. MacLachlan