| Sumario: | This paper examines the idea of a “pact” between the Spanish king and his Indigenous vassals of the New World. Such a pact was mediated by a justice system based on the jusnaturalist theory as posited by 16th century authors. Although Indigenous people were not acquainted with the details of such theories, they did feel their specific effects through certain rights and the operation of Indigenous laws. Since they were taxpayers, they could be exploited in the name of the royal treasury. For the same reason, they deserved royal protection against greedy Spaniards who mocked the law and wanted to take advantage of them. Through lawsuits and petitions, Indigenous lawyers of the 17th century developed a vocabulary and a political-legal practice that was based on the idea of justice as a guiding value of the Novohispanic society.
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