Abstract

This essay is based on a case of judicial responsibility instituted, between 1808 and 1824, against the magistrates of the Audiencia de Lima, on the charges of prevarication, bribery and misbehavior. The analysis of this case shows, on the one hand, how, despite the deep political changes taking place during that period in Perù and in the whole Catholic Monarchy, the judicial responsibility's traditional model remained valid; and, on the other hand, how those changes determined a political use of the tools offered by this kind of responsibility.