Vol. 1 shows the major differences between Anglo-American and Luso-Brazilian legal traditions into explicit focus underscoring how the meaning of bastardy historically imposed a distinction between two sub-systems of European inheritance. In Vol 2, Lewin examines and interprets how Brazilian legislators, during the first three decades of independence, proposed to rewrite those inheritance rights vis-a-vis illegitimate individuals and revised or discarded portions of the enduring national code of law received from Portugal. She uses the process of making law as the focus for concluding how public power confronted illegitimacy and inheritance rights during Brazil's crucial passage from colony to nation. She also connects law to customary values and family patterns.

Lewin's book is THICK and dense. Interesting historical information but not relevant for me so I did not enjoy it much.

"it is important to appreciate the legal watershed defined by Law No. 463 of 1847. Not only was it the nineteenth century's most important piece of legislation pertaining to the inheritance rights of illegitimate individuals…but it also stood as a reaction to earlier efforts to liberalize the legal position of illegitimate individuals."