Taistelu omasta siviilioikeudesta: derechos forales Espanjassa ennen ja nyt
Avainsanat:
derecho foral, foraalioikeus, siviilioikeudellinen identiteettifunktio, Espanjan kodifikaatiot, Espanjan siviilioikeus, siviilioikeudellinen symboliarvoAbstrakti
Fighting for separate civil (private) law: derechos forales in Spain in the past and today
Spanish civil (private) law is not uniform. The country includes several (17) autonomous communities (regions); six of these have a civil-law system of their own, called “foral law”. These regional systems have been, and still are, of considerable importance. Even though the general Civil Code of Spain (Código civil) is the principal set of legal rules in the field of civil law, every third Spaniard is subject to the foral-law rules of one of the autonomous regions.
The history of autonomous communities with their own separate forallaw system goes back to the sovereign Medieval kingdoms of Northern and North-Eastern Spain. Over the centuries, Spain has experienced power struggles between the historical foral-law regions of Spain and the central administration of the country. Civil law has been involved in these struggles as a strong symbol of regional self-determination, a feature that remains the case even today. In many parts of Spain, it has been felt – and is still felt – that a separate civil-law system forms an essential part of the regional identity of the inhabitants. Indeed, Spain’s body of civil law continues to present a complicated picture in the third millennium.
In this article, the author offers an overview of the history and present-day regulation of foral law and on this basis examines the position of civil law as a factor strengthening regional identity. The object of this examination is to illustrate how strongly different factors – political, ideological, cultural and linguistic – may influence development of civil law. With comparative lawyers and legal historians debating the importance of diverse background factors in the birth and growth of legal institutions, the author of the present article aims at providing information that could serve as elucidatory examples in the debate.
