The Passion of Maria Elena (review)
tionship between politics and the justice system. A historian reading this book will be at the same time impressed by its accomplishments (the ability to summarize a multiplicity of debates and bibliography) but also discouraged by its thematic dispersion which, at times, leads into unsupported generalizations or inadequate treatment of certain issues. The main difficulty stems from the radical heterogeneity of the subject matter. Issues such as marriage, inheritance, commerce, insurance, copyrights, land reform, court hierarchies, caudillos, and constitutions stand on the same level, as if subjected to a Borgesian order. They are all part of the same great constellation called "private law," an entity so all-encompassing that defies understanding. Can one make a history of such a heterogeneous subject matter? What principles are at work in the constitution of this subject matter? How could one summarize and account for the changes experienced for such vast entity?