Jamail Center for Legal Research

Rare Books & Special Collections

         Aztec Courts

There was a system of lesser courts, whose verdicts could be appealed to a supreme judicial council. This council had 80 days in which to resolve appeals, and would consult with the ruler before handing down its judgment. The ruler was the final arbiter of appeals. He appointed all judges and held them to high standards of conduct.

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Before the reign of Moctezuma the administration of public affairs had not been done systematically until he, being a prudent and able ruler, drew up a code of common law; those who disobeyed were severely punished. This did not interfere with the restricted liberty which his subjects had, on condition that they minded their own business.

—Codex Mendoza

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The palace of Moctezuma (right), ruler of the Aztec empire of Tenochtitlan (Codex Mendoza). Moctezuma is seated on his throne at the top; in the chamber at lower right is the supreme judicial council.

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Anyone who wished to appeal had to appear before this court for re-trial; if he won his case, he thereby obtained redress of his grievance; otherwise the former judgment stood. If the case was one for the High Court in the first instance, then an appeal could be made to Moctezuma himself, and his word was final.

—Codex Mendoza

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Giving testimony in an Aztec court (left) (Historia de ... Nueva España). Plate 82 shows judges holding court. In plate 85, the judge seated at right records testimony in pictographs; the man standing is perhaps an attorney. Aztec courts relied on evidence to reach their decisions, which could come from oral testimony, confessions, or circumstantial evidence. Unlike some European legal proceedings at the time of the conquest, the Aztecs did not use trial by ordeal or appeals for supernatural guidance.