Books by Linda Lewin

Focusing on the inheritance rights of people born outside wedlock, this book explores the legal evolution of their rights as Brazil moved from colony to nation. It offers a unique counterpoint to the conventional political history of the Brazilian Empire, which ignores important legal change involving family and inheritance law.

This work situates the patrimonial rights of illegitimate offspring in Brazil within a system of Luso-Brazilian heirship that operated in the final half century of Portugese colonial rule. The book offers an explanation of how the rules of inheritance applied to people born outside of wedlock.