La revolución fiscalizada. Los juicios de residencia en el Río de la Plata, 1810-1820

Abstract

Trials of residence instructed in Río de la Plata during the first revolutionary decade demonstrated how difficult it was to judge those occupying the highest positions in the government. The winding implementation of separation of powers’ principle plus the unsolved question concerning where sovereing actually resides (and hence who should be constituted jugde) enabled different ways of controlling authorities after the Revolution. The intention of this article is not to outline an “evolutionist” sheme in institutional terms, but to locate problems that arise from the fundamental question of how to evaluate the political responsibilities of the governments that exercised power in the Rio de la Plata between 1810 and 1820. To that end, types of trials will be examined and the jurisdictional conflicts derived from them as well as the set of ideas and values that guided the appraisal of those to be judged, inferred from the charges and penalties.

Keywords

• politics
• revolution
• trials of residence