1. Subject 1. Course introduction - creation and evolution of the system of sources or the history of Law as the history of the struggle to create Law I. Introduction to the subject: an approach to the course content. What the History of Law is about. How it differs from other fields. II. The History of Law as a discipline and its uses. The historical-critical method. Martínez Marina. Savigny and the Historical School of Law. Hinojosa. Approach to the codification (or not) of the History of Law: historicism and rationalism, the French and German models. III. Three key legal traditions in Europe and three source system models: Law created by legislators, by scholars and by judges. |
2. Subject 2. Preparatory concepts: validity of norms and political power Pre-Roman rights, area of norm validity (personality/territoriality) and problem with political structures (hospitality agreements and client relations) |
3. Subject 3. The system of sources and its Romanisation: from the Law of experts to the Law of the Emperor - authority and power in the creation of Law. I. The transformation of Roman political structure and its impact on Law: definition of the Roman system of sources based on the relation between "auctoritas" and "potestas". II. Legal Romanisation: the evolution of the relationships between Rome and the territories it conquered: its impact on Romanisation. Legal Romanisation in Hispania: 1) the progressive decline of the principle of personality; 2) provincial Hispano-Roman Law; 3) vulgar Roman Law. |
4. Subject 4. Survival and transformation of Roman Law with the arrival of Germanic tribes: the determination of the system of sources between emancipation from and emulation of the Late Roman Empire model The political and legal framework of the entry and later settlement of the Visigoths in Roman territory. The progressive definition of Visigoth power and Law: "Código de Eurico", "Brevario de Alarico", "Codex Revisus" and "liber Iudiciorum". The royal establishment of law and the church's support. |
5. Subject 5. Apparition of a new Law - Legal localism or the fragmentation of the system of sources Two explanatory points regarding the development of High medieval Law as local Law: political fragmentation and normative dispersion. Analysis of the system to draft laws in the High Middle Ages: the system known as judicial localism. Regional codes of law: "fueros señoriales", "Cartas pueblas" and "Fueros municipales breves". |
6. Subject 6. Introduction of Common Law: the struggle to redefine the system of sources between coexisting political projects 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 introduction and implementation of the new legal system. |
7. Subject 7. Normative integration or the process of reconstructing the system of sources: the case of Castile. The first attempts by Castilian Kings to eradicate judicial localism: "Fuero juzgo", "Fuero Real" and "Fueros municipales extensos". Application of Royal Law by the King's courts. Common Law and the codification of the Partidas. The Ordinances of Alcalá, 1348, and their ranking of sources. The Laws of Toro, 1505, as the culmination of normative integration. |
8. Subject 8. Normative integration or the process to reconstruct the system of sources: The case of Catalonia I. 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. II. 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. Absolutism, legal science and the compilation movement: reduction in the system of sources to legal authority I. The Modern Era as a period of breaking away from the medieval concept of the world: legal humanism and rationalist "iusnaturalism". II. The Modern Era as an intensification of features already existent in the Middle Ages: the compilation movement, the cases of Castile and Catalonia. |
10. Subject 10. Application of rationalism: Constitutionalism and codification. The Law of the Legislator? Constitutions and codes. Liberalism and democracy. The reaction from legal experts: Pandectism. Nationalism and historicism. Positivism. |