La pervivencia de la tradición legal visigótica en el reino asturleonés

Abstract

For decades, historians have pointed to the survival of Visigothic Law in the centuries immediately following the Muslim conquest. Various references from the Astur-Leonés documentation in the Liber Iudicum appear to confirm such continued use of Visigothic law. With that in mind, this paper highlights the existence of other legal practices that do not strictly conform to the Gothic tradition contained in the Liber; some are arguably evolved forms—significant in themselves—of these usages, but others are to some extent innovative. Thus, rather than looking to some putatively remote Roman or Germanic origins for these elements, the paper stresses what one might define as a process of transformation and partial substitution of legal culture, presumably related to various changes that were already taking place in the late Visigothic period.

Keywords

• Astur-Leonés kingdom
• Legal culture
• Liber Iudiciorum
• Visigothic Law