In the Texas Republic, Spanish law came to be seen as more equitable than English common law in certain areas, especially women's rights. Upon statehood, traditions in community property and women's legal status were written into the Texas constitution. Through legal battles, documents, and court cases, Hers, His, and Theirs explores the evolution of Castilian law and how those laws came to the New World and Texas. Focusing on why the Spanish legal system developed so differently from any other European system and why it survived in Texas, Jean A. Stuntz also explores why this aspect of married women's property rights has not been well studied.

Jean A. Stuntz teaches Texas and Spanish borderlands history at West Texas A&M University, in Canyon. Formerly a practicing attorney, she now specializes in women's history of the Southwest.