The classic reference work that provides annually updated information on the countries of the world.

Vodou has often served as a scapegoat for Haiti’s problems, from political upheavals to natural disasters. This tradition of scapegoating stretches back to the nation’s founding and forms part of a contest over the legitimacy of the religion, both beyond and within Haiti’s borders. The Spirits and the Law examines that vexed history, asking why, from 1835 to 1987, Haiti banned many popular ritual practices. To find out, Kate Ramsey begins with the Haitian Revolution and its aftermath. Fearful of an independent black nation inspiring similar revolts, the United States, France, and the rest of Europe ostracized Haiti. Successive Haitian governments, seeking to counter the image of Haiti as primitive as well as contain popular organization and leadership, outlawed “spells” and, later, “superstitious practices.” While not often strictly enforced, these laws were at times the basis for attacks on Vodou by the Haitian state, the Catholic Church, and occupying U.S. forces. Beyond such offensives, Ramsey argues that in prohibiting practices considered essential for maintaining relations with the spirits, anti-Vodou laws reinforced the political marginalization, social stigmatization, and economic exploitation of the Haitian majority. At the same time, she examines the ways communities across Haiti evaded, subverted, redirected, and shaped enforcement of the laws. Analyzing the long genealogy of anti-Vodou rhetoric, Ramsey thoroughly dissects claims that the religion has impeded Haiti’s development.

One of the most unfortunate facts about the relationship of the United States with Latin America is that only in recent years has there been any appreciable amount of intellectual interchange with reference to law. This, of course, is an example of the relative lack of cultural exchange between these peoples. Only in very recent years has the North American interest in Latin America been in any sense general and active. While there are a few recent volumes which discuss various aspects of Latin American law in a fashion calculated to interest the North American lawyer and academician, the Latin American contributions to and attitudes toward international law are virtually unknown in the United States except in very restricted quarters. For this reason it was thought that a survey such as the one presented here would contribute not only to a better under standing of Latin American juristic thought as pertaining to international law, but also to a better comprehension of legal theory in general, and of Latin American culture as a whole. The phase of the philosophy of international law which, with reference to the regional application here studied, has been the major interest in this work, i.e., whether writers rely more on naturalism or positivism as the philosophical foundation of the law of nations, is, like the matter of Latin American law itself, a subject which has been neglected by North American scholars.

The classic reference work that provides annually updated information on the countries of the world.