Law of Spain
The Spanish law is the sum judicially enforceable social norms in Spain.
Legal History
About the right to pre-Roman times to the areas of Spain today, very little is known. In Tartessos the written record of legal propositions is demonstrated by 500 BC. A coherent legal history the jurisdictions in present-day Spain, however, can write only from the 2nd century BC. Inform the style of Spanish law remained the influence of the Roman law of the Roman invasion in 206 BC to the 5th century AD. From Alfonso García- Gallo comes the thesis that " the Spanish law has since experienced no profound change more." For the integration of the Roman law was particularly the awarding of the Latinity of meaning, the rules of commercium found thus apply to all residents of Spain today. With the Constitutio Antoniniana all free inhabitants of the Roman Empire became Roman citizens, Spain had thus become fully part of Roman legal cosmos.
The invasion of Germanic tribes in 415 AD. While this led to a political upheaval, but left the development of Roman law largely untouched. The political fragmentation of the Iberian Peninsula was preparing the legal entity created by Roman law on the Iberian Peninsula. The now vulgarized Roman law mingled with Visigothic common law and canon law. The possibly going back to Eurich Codex Euricianus is an important testimony of the legal history of this era.
The 7th century were transformed with the invasion of the Moors, the political situation again; Spain was cleaved by now centuries in two main parts, they were legally unconnected. The Christian area was divided into numerous, partly enemy kingdoms. At the same time precisely these kingdoms were the least influenced by Roman law. The Muslim law of the Moors remained for the Spanish legal history in the long term without influence. However, the unification of law came in this phase to a halt, which would last until the 11th century.
The 12th century saw the emergence of a renaissance universities of the Justinian Roman law on the basis of his scientific rediscovery and working with them. In much of Europe, and thus also of Spain, a ius commune formed out its roots in Justinian, canon, and feudal law were local, which had been systematized in the universities. After the commencement of this unification of law, it took almost three centuries until the political unity of Spain by the marriage of Ferdinand II and Isabella I, and the expulsion of the Moors 1492. Political unity meant that soon the royal law took precedence over the other local permissions have been granted. The Castilian law was regarded more and more as the Spanish law.
The unification of law reached its peak in the 18th century. This went on one hand to the conquered of Ferdinand V of Castile hegemonic position back, the other hand on the solidifying idea of the king as supreme legislator; Roman law subsidiary Rank was only granted. The political turmoil at the beginning of the 19th century resulted in a short time also to profound changes of a legal nature. The Cortes of Cádiz from 1810 to 1814 brought the Constitution of Cádiz a constitutional framework of liberal - or blank out, the first time gave the authority to initiate the legislative process to the Parliament - ultimately Franzoesisch inspired. As a result of the interplay between monarchical and democratic, liberal and conservative movements in Spain offers the image of a French inspired legal system with codified law, binding of the judge to the law and subsidiarity of customary law.
The Second Spanish Republic reformed numerous legal institutions: the first time was the possibility of divorce, jury trials were introduced. The Spanish Civil War slowed, however, soon made such reforms; its result was an autocratic regime of General Franco, which would endure forty years. The most dramatic changes of the Franco regime were taking place in constitutional law. On the death of Franco in 1975 followed the process transición, ie the transformation of an autocratic to a democratic constitutional system. The most important step in this respect was the Constitution of 1978 in other areas of the law of the fracture had failed far less radically since Franco.; accordingly, the Spanish legal system to consider total as a result of continuous development of 1600 years.
Sources of law
The Civil Code provides in Article 1, paragraph 1 CC:
« Las fuentes del ordenamiento jurídico español son la ley, la costumbre y los principios generales del derecho. "
" The legal sources of the Spanish legal system are the law, customary law and the general principles of law "
Organisation of justice
See main article judicial organization in Spain