With this comprehensive compilation Hall sought to bring order to what he viewed as the disorganized state of Mexican law. With a new introduction by Peter L. Reich, Professor of Law and Sumner Scholar, Whittier Law School. Originally published: San Francisco: A.L. Bancroft and Company, 1885. (v-xx new introduction), cxxiv, 809, 811*]-862*, 811]-840 pp. Through this English collection of sources from Spain's medieval law code tMexico's 1870 Codigo Civil (Civil Code), Hall highlighted issues such as trade, property, agrarian and water rights, mines, contracts and inheritances that applied in the Mexican context as well as in the territories ceded to the United States. The book begins with a translation of Mexico's 1857 Constitution, and is then divided into three parts: Spanish Crown lands, Mexican public lands, colonization and mines; individual property (and water) rights prior to the 1870 Civil Code; and, rights set out in that Code.
Frederic Hall (1825-1898) was an attorney and journalist in California and Mexico. He was also the author of Life of Maximilian I, Late Emperor of Mexico (1868), Invasion of Mexico by the French (1868), The History of San Jose and Surroundings (1871), Mexico and Maximilian (1880) and The Mining Laws of the State of California, 1849 to 1897 (1897)."