Cuadernos de Historia del Derecho

Legal pairing in the administration of justice: procedural practices and jurisdictional tensions in cases of tobacco smuggling in Antioquia, 1820-1850

Andrés Botero Bernal — 2025-12-15

This paper analyzes the administration of justice in cases of smuggling in Medellín (Antioquia, Colombia) between 1820-1850 and raises the meeting of two legal cultures, a phenomenon that we will call pairing or blend between the old and new regime. To do this, it focuses on judicial cases related to the cultivation and smuggling of tobacco, showing the complexity in the coexistence of the legal sources of the moment when judging. In addition, resistance to a modern political and legal project is evident, which affected the application of Republican regulations. The study reveals the complexity in the coexistence of the sources of law, as well as the relevance of smuggling in the economy of the time and its impact on the income of the State. The tension between local and statal judges stands out, as well as the lack of lawyer judges, which generated a jurisdictional duality that sought to increase the effectiveness of justice in the first years of the Republic.

Responsibility of states for damages to foreigners in a tentative period. The Spanish chapter of the Cerruti case and other claims of Italian subjects against Colombia (1886-1904)

Héctor Domínguez Benito — 2025-12-15

By means of the Matéus-Menabrea Protocol of 1886, Colombia and Italy agreed to submit to the Government of Spain the decision as to whether Ernesto Cerruti and other Italian subjects living in Colombia should be compensated for the damages they had suffered as a result of administrative responsibility. Historians have so far not paid much attention to the Spanish sources relevant to this agreement, and have focused only on examining the first phase of this case: the millionaire lawsuit concerning Cerruti. This paper aims to provide a panoramic view of the two phases of the litigation in Spain, highlighting the peculiar status granted to the mediator –or, rather, arbitrator– and contextualizing the complex trajectory of the case within a broader scenario of profound transformations, during which international law was still in an experimental stage.

Encouraging Agrarian Colonization through Private Initiative: Exemptions and Privileges in the New Sevillian Settlement of La Serrezuela (1778)

Adolfo Hamer-Flores — 2025-12-15

This article examines the foundation of La Serrezuela as an experience of private agrarian colonization inspired by the New Settlements of Sierra Morena. Through two key documents dated 1778, which until now had remained unknown, it analyses the exemptions and privileges granted to the settlers to encourage the settlement of the new colony. The initiative, promoted by the Marquess of La Serrezuela, combined private capital with state support; however, despite its ambitious beginnings, the project ultimately failed. Thus, this case illustrates the limits of Enlightenment reformism when applied to the Andalusian countryside through private initiatives.

Procedure and practice of the Royal Chancery of Valladolid. The distribution of lawsuits to notaries

David Marcos Díez — 2025-12-15

The apportioner of lawsuits of the Royal Chancery of Valladolid was the official who, from an early date, guaranteed equality and balance in the activities of the court clerks of the Castilian High Court, as well as the proper conduct of litigation in its initial phase. This article examines the regulations that gave rise to the office and the apportionment procedure, as well as analyzes the office itself, its holders and the procedure itself; highlighting its influence on other Spanish and American high courts, as well as on the apportionment of judicial matters in the contemporary administration of justice.

A Suspicious Discipline: The chair of natural law and nations in the eyes of catholic legal culture

Oscar Olivares Jatib — 2025-12-15

The discipline of natural law and law of nations has been the subject of academic and intellectual controversy throughout Western Europe since the seventeenth century. In this context, the present study asks about the effects of the European confessional division on legal education and literature dominated by the ius commune. As we try to prove, the Catholic intellectual culture and its Protestant counterpart were interconnected through a space for the circulation, communication and translation of legal knowledge created by the European legal science. It is concluded that the authors and works of rational natural law, although they collided at different dogmatic points with the Catholic legal culture, foster continental legal education with new methodological proposals and theories in the field of the rising public law.

On mortis causa transactions in Roman Law and Spanish Civil Law: proposals for a definition in each area and for the concept of terminus iuris

Rafael Satrústegui Caruncho — 2025-12-15

This paper presents an analysis of mortis causa legal transactions in Roman Law and Spanish Civil Law, from the perspective of the juridical dogmatism, aiming to provide a precise definition for each domain. The study begins by reviewing Jordano Barea’s critique of the predominant doctrinal conception of the will, examining the private nature of mortis causa institutions, assessing the legal effects they might produce immediately, and the role of a condicio iuris within them. Throughout the discussion, the implicit presence of the concept of terminus iuris in both legal systems becomes apparent. Finally, the paper culminates in proposed definitions.

Provisions of the Council of Orders (Order of Santiago) regarding the town, commander and commandery of Socuéllamos (1517-1556)

Pedro Andrés Porras Arboledas — 2025-12-15

This contribution brings together a collection of almost 400 registers of documents relating to the period of Emperor Charles’ administration and the town of Socuéllamos in La Mancha, where both local issues and examples of the policies being developed by the monarchy during those years can be seen. Of particular note is the large number of provisions that refer specifically to disputes over boundaries and land use between this town and neighbouring villages, evidence of the human, livestock and economic growth that was taking place at that time.