Structure and content
Contenido
Las Partidas abarcan todo el saber jurídico de la época dentro de una visión unitaria, por ello se las ha considerado una summa de derecho. Trata, entre otras materias, de derecho constitucional, mercantil y procesal, tanto civil como penal.
Están redactadas en castellano, de un pulcro estilo literario, e inspiradas en una visión teologal del mundo. Posee un prólogo, que señala el objeto de la obra, y siete partes o libros llamados partidas, las cuales comienzan con una letra del nombre del rey sabio, componiendo un acróstico (A-L-F-O-N-S-O). Cada partida se divide en títulos (182 en total), y estos en leyes (2.683 en total).
Sus disposiciones acostumbran ir acompañadas de citas a autores y obras, alegorías y ejemplos y, especialmente, de una exposición razonada de sus orígenes y fundamentos (etimológicos, religiosos, filosóficos e históricos), por lo que no son meramente prescriptivas.
Las contradicciones existentes entre algunas disposiciones serían producto del esquema de trabajo utilizado en su elaboración, donde cada partida habría sido redactada por una persona distinta.
First Game
The first item includes 24 titles and 516 laws. It begins by dealing with the sources of law (in title I), a symbolic cover of the work. It deals with the law and defines it by pointing to its content (1,1,4), which produces effects regarding its obedience (just and unjust laws); It refers to the way good laws are made, relating the power of government to the authority of knowledge (1,1,9) and classifies laws as canonical and secular (1,1,3).
It mentions the conditions that a good legislator must meet: having God present, loving justice, having knowledge of the law and being willing to amend or change the laws when necessary (1,1,11). Finally, it establishes the validity requirements and the force that custom has, that is, according to the law, outside the law and against the law (1,2,5).
Then he dedicated himself completely to canon law, that is, to ecclesiastical matters. It refers to the dogmas and sacraments, the organization of the Church, prerogatives and obligations of the clerics and the right of asylum "Asylum (refuge)") in the churches.
There are important differences between the versions of this game. They would be the product of a reworking, which would have been done with the aim of limiting the royal powers, given the rejection expressed by the nobles to the original text of the first game, which reaffirmed the power of the monarch against them. This situation would also explain the so-called "late promulgation."
Second game
The second game has 31 titles and 359 laws. It refers to temporal power, that is, emperors, kings and other great lords (public law). It makes a distinction between spiritual and temporal power, recognizing a duality in the structure of power and a relationship of harmony between both worlds.
It establishes important provisions of political law (2,1,5), referring to the king, the origin and end of power, and the relationship of command and obedience, founded on faith and reason. It deals with the rights and duties of the king towards God, the people and the land and the rights and duties of the people towards God, the king and the land. It also deals with the family and royal succession, pointing out the ways to acquire the throne, that is, it regulates the succession in the Crown of Castile (2,15,2). This regulation is relevant, since it was the traditional one in Castile until the promulgation of the Fundamental Succession Law by order of King Felipe V; In the time of Ferdinand VII, the succession established in the items came into force again and is currently included in the Spanish Constitution of 1978.
Finally, the second game closes referring to the university (2,31,1), one of the most important late medieval institutions.
Third Game
The third game has 32 titles and 543 laws. It deals with justice and the administration of justice. It refers to civil procedure and the judicial empire, its main theme being the process: the people who intervene in the trial and the procedure according to which it is processed.
Successively it refers to the plaintiff and defendant; the judges (3,4,3) and lawyers (3,4,6); the terms and means of proof, among which the public deed is included (3.18.1) and, therefore, refers to the notaries (3.19.1); the sentences; and the appeals or appeals against them.
It ends by dealing with dominion (3,28,1), recognizing the existence of certain communal goods; of possession (3,30,1); the prescription "Prescription (right)"); usucapion; and easements "Servitude (right)").
Fourth Game
The fourth game has 27 titles and 256 laws. It is intended for family law and, in addition, for other permanent ties between people, other than marriage and kinship.
It deals with the betrothal (4,1,2); marriage (4,2,1), subject to canon law (capacity, form and validity); divorce (not as dissolution of the marriage bond, but as separation of "bed and roof"); legitimate filiation and illegitimate filiation (4,14,1); parental authority; slavery (4:21) (which is justified as a preferable alternative to the execution of captives, although it is later called "the vilest thing in this world" after sin (4:22,8)); the status of people (free and slave; nobleman and common person; cleric and layman "Layman (Catholic Church)"); legitimate and illegitimate children; Christians and Moors or Jews; male and female); vassalage and fiefs; and the bonds of friendship.
Fifth Game
The fifth game has 15 titles and 374 laws. It refers to the acts and contracts that human beings can carry out or celebrate in the course of their life (private law).
It deals with the mutual contract, prohibiting the collection of interest or "usury"; of bailment; deposit "Deposit (contract)"); of donation; of sale, with the distinction between title and mode of acquisition (from Roman law); exchange; rental or leasing; of company or partnership; of stipulation or promise; and the bail and the peños (mortgages and pledges "Pledge (rem)")).
It also refers to the payment and transfer of assets. Likewise, it includes important rules of commercial law, referring to merchants and commercial contracts.
Game Six
The sixth game has 19 titles and 272 laws. It deals with inheritance law (succession due to death) and guardians&action=edit&redlink=1 "Guarda (right) (not yet written)"). Likewise, it contemplates rules on the legal status of the orphan.
It refers to the testate succession and the will (6,1,1); to the legitimate and, briefly, to the intestate succession (6,13,1). Regulates guardianships and curatorships (guardians) and the figure of restitutio in integrum.
Game Seven
The seventh and last game has 34 titles and 363 laws. It is dedicated to criminal law and criminal procedure, that is, to crimes and criminal procedure (of an inquisitorial nature).[1] It also includes references to the legal status of Muslims and Jews.
It admits torture in the absence of other evidence of the crime, establishing the requirements of provenance or exclusion (7,1,26 and 7,30,1).
Much of it is dedicated to dealing with various crimes (which he calls errors), among them: treason against the king (lack of fidelity); falsehood and homicides, distinguishing three situations: criminal homicide (intentional), accidental and self-defense; crimes against honor; robberies, thefts and damages, clearly distinguishing theft from theft; deceptions and scams; adultery, incest, rape, sodomy, pandering and witchcraft; heresy, suicide and blasphemy.
It distinguishes the act committed by a person who cannot be held accountable (among others, the insane and the child under ten years of age) from that committed by a person who is liable. Furthermore, it recognizes the figure of attempted and completed crime (7,31,2) and provides for certain forms of instigation and complicity. Likewise, it contemplates exonerating, mitigating and aggravating circumstances (7,31,8) and deals with the prison, establishing rules for the warden (7,29,8).
It establishes that the purpose of the penalty (7,31,1) is retribution (punishment for what was done) and general prevention (a means of general intimidation, so that the act is not repeated) and special prevention (so that the offender does not commit the crime again). It contemplates seven types of penalties (7,31,4), enshrining the public nature of the repressive activity (the first four for major errors and the others for minor errors): death penalty or loss of a limb; perpetual work; perpetual banishment with confiscation of property; life imprisonment; perpetual banishment without confiscation of property; infamy or loss of some office; and public whippings or wounds, or exposure naked and dipped in honey to suffer the discomfort of flies.
The Partidas, imitating the Digest and the Decretales, ends with a title on rules of law, but it is an innovation that is introduced in the Venetian edition of 1528, in which law 7.33.13, according to the manuscript and printed tradition until 1501, becomes an independent title with 38 numbered rules.