Abstract
This essay considers the possibilities of reforming the administration of justice in the 18th century, in order to address some problems related to the so-called Bourbon reformism in America. From the legal and institutional framework established (justice of judges), it discusses the judicial policy of the Catholic Monarchy with regard to the American Audiencias and the reactions it provoked among the creole lawyers, in order to show the limits imposed by the traditional legal order to the political action of the Crown (reform as restoration).
Keywords:
Bourbon reforms; administration of justice; Royal Courts of Justice; Spanish America; justice of judges