1. Subject 1. Course introduction. 1) Introduction to the subject: an approach to the course content. What the History of Law is about. How it differs from other fields. The History of Law as a discipline. The aims of the History of Law. 2) Legal historiography. The historical-critical method. Martínez Marina. Savigny and the Historical School of Law. Hinojosa. |
2. Subject 2. Pre-Roman Law. Characterisation of pre-Roman legal and political organisation. The principle of personality and its flexibility: client agreements and client relationships. |
3. Subject 3. The Romanisation of Law. The evolution of Roman political structure: its impact on the evolution of Roman Law. The evolution of the relationships between Rome and the territories it had conquered: its impact on the extent of Roman Law. Specific questions on the Romanisation process in Hispania: 1) the mechanisms of the progressive extension of Roman Law; 2) provincial Hispano-Roman Law; 3) vulgar Roman Law. |
4. Subject 4. The law in Visigothic Hispania. The political and legal framework of the entry and later settlement of the Visigoths in Roman territory. The Visigoth settlement process. Visigothic law. The royal establishment of law and the church's support. |
5. Subject 5. Law in the High Middle Ages. Two explanatory points about this new Law. Analysis of the system to draft laws in the High Middle Ages: the system known as judicial localism. The 13th Century's change of approach to the system of drafting laws. |
6. Subject 6. Reception of Common Law. The change from the law of the High Middle Ages to that of the Low Middle Ages (a change in epoch and society). The recovery of Justinian Law as a turning point. The spread of Common Law. The conflict that arose from the reception and implementation of the new legal system. |
7. Subject 7. Law in the Low Middle Ages: Castile. The first attempts by Castilian Kings to eradicate judicial localism. Royal attempt to standardise the local legal systems in the old regions of the kingdom. Application of a royal law by the King's courts. The codification of the Partidas. The Ordinances of Alcalá, 1348. The Laws of Toro, 1505. |
8. Subject 8. Law in the Low Middle Ages Law: Catalonia Elements indicating continuity in the formation of a Catalan legal system: The continued existence of Visigothic law through the Liber Judiciorum and the Usatges of Barcelona; the resilience of custom at a local level. Disruptive elements in the laws once finally drafted: participation of the estates in setting down and interpreting the laws; the weight of Common Law in the source system. |
9. Subject 9. The Modern Era: the compilation movement. The Modern Era as a period of breaking away from the medieval concept of the world. The Modern Era seen as an intensification of features already existent in the Middle Ages. The case of Castile. The case of Catalonia. |
10. Subject 10. Constitutionalism and codification. Constitutions and codes. Liberalism and democracy. The reaction of legal experts: Pandectism. Nationalism and historicism. Positivism. |