Jamail Center for Legal Research

Rare Books & Special Collections

       Maya Law

First- or even second-hand information on Maya law is relatively scarce. Perhaps the best single source is the account written by the Franciscan, Fray Diego de Landa, Relación de las cosas de Yucatan. Landa himself shares some of the blame for this, since he and his fellow missionaries systematically burned every Maya manuscript they could lay hands on.

Fray Diego de Landa (left) (Landa’s Relación ).

Penalties in Maya law were intended to either deter the offenders or compensate the victims. Judgment was swift, and the sentences were often carried out in public as a lesson to the community. Unlike the Aztec system, there was apparently no appeal in Mayan law. Officials had both civil and judicial duties.

The ruler of Bonampak with his court (right), displaying prisoners of war (The Murals of Bonampak). Passages from Landa's chronicle suggest that structures similar to the staircase shown here were used for the public humiliation of criminals. In this scene, the victims are prisoners of war, some of whom have been tortured. The Mayans were a warlike people. War was openly declared, often with the object of taking prisoners. Reciprocity was the guiding principle of their international law.