Spanish Legal History: From Las Partidas to the Constitutions
The Siete Partidas (Seven-Part Code) addressed various legal domains:
- Questions of a civil nature about people, such as marriage, guardianship, serfs, servants, or vassalage (Partida IV).
- Merchant traffic, contracts, loans, and debts (Partida V).
- Inheritance rights (Partida VI).
- Criminal law (Partida VII).
Las Partidas was drafted by a commission of jurists (or by the Royal Chancellery). King Alfonso X likely indicated the text’s purpose and matters to be addressed, reviewing and amending the commission’s work. Regardless, Las Partidas constitutes the most important normative body of the Middle Ages, a complex codification of all laws of Castile, innovative for the time and based on Justinian Roman law, canonical and feudal principles.
End of the Middle Ages: Reconquista and the Discovery of the New World
The process of strengthening royal power at all levels of society included creating a normative system that reinforced and shielded the monarch and a judicial apparatus that established the monarch’s absolute power.
To this end, the judicial hierarchical structures approved by the Ordenamiento de Alcalá in the 14th century were adopted. These structures, formed by Chancillerías, Consejos, Casa y Corte, and Audiencias, imparted laws that, especially in the 15th century, underwent fervent unification. The most relevant text was the New Recopilation, published during the reign of Philip II, which was reinforced and expanded through the Royal Pragmatics or simple Instructions.
After the Reconquista, the Catholic Monarchs imposed the laws of Castile on the rest of the peninsula, although with prerogatives and special local laws in other territories, as part of a work of integration, organization, and unification of the “State.” This state was becoming more extensive and complex to administer, which increased due to the Discovery of America and the need to legislate and administer justice in “Las Indias,” which were incorporated into the Crown of Castile via accession after long negotiations with Pope Alexander VI. This led to what would later be called “Indian Law,” beginning with the Capitulations.
Initially, Castilian law, which governed the Peninsula, was to be applied in the discovered territories. However, practical problems arose, and special laws began to be applied, soon becoming the general right. Case by case, they contemplated and resolved the “legal gaps” that remained to be dealt with. Essential were the New Laws of 1542 and the subsequent Compilation of the Laws of the Indies of 1680, as well as the use of customary laws (the Customs).
19th Century: The Arrival of the Spanish Constitutions
From the 16th to part of the 18th century, the king’s power was absolute, reverting in all areas of law. Laws were created by the monarch, and all institutions depended on him.
The arrival of the Bourbons with Philip V meant the arrival of a new team of ministers who believed it necessary to undertake a centralizing and unifying task, especially against Catalonia, Aragon, and Mallorca.