ABSTRACT
This chapter first presents the specific context of the genesis of the Very Brief Account in juridical circumstances precipitated by Las Casas’s return to Spain in 1538 and his audience with the emperor, who immediately convened a special junta to remedy the evils and harm done to the Indigenous people. Armed at this junta with numerous notarized probanzas, official records, and supportive letters from ecclesial and civil authorities, Las Casas first gave a very lengthy account about the atrocities in the Indies, and then contributed to the junta’s deliberations, which resulted in the legislation and promulgation of the 1542 New Laws. Las Casas was then asked for a summary of his initial lengthy account; this summary was titled the Brevísima relación. In 1546, compelled by the ongoing evils and harm, Las Casas augmented the treatise and published it in Seville in 1552. The chapter then assesses the treatise’s legal character by explicating the juridical attributes of its publication, and its authoritative evidence—documentary and testimonial. This section establishes the legal character of the Brevísima relación as a piece of juristic writing belonging to the civil juridical genres of relaciones, denuncias, and peticiones, which reflected the hegemony of legal discourse.
