The Civil law of Catalonia in the Spanish codification process

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between the codification process of Spanish civil law, that ended with the enactment of the Code in 1888-1889, and the Catalan Civil law, that could be preserved through the Decreto de nueva planta (1716). Once the critical century of the Enlightenment could be overcome, the paper studies the position of Catalonia and its civil law faced to the encoders attempts that occurred during the nineteenth century, focusing specially on the reaction of Catalonia to the 1851 draft, and the subsequent involvement of Duran i Bas in the final stretch of the codification process. The latter culminated thanks to an agreement with the law of those territories that had their own laws which allowed the promulgation of the Code.