The following chapter offers a synthesis of the long-standing relationship between the two fundamental components of current Catalan law. On the one hand, we have Catalan law as it has been developed by Catalan institutions; and on the other, the European ius commune, canon and Roman law, as adopted and incorporated into Catalan law by Catalonia's institutions.

The introduction refers to the period just before the initial reception of Roman law, and is followed by four further sections, which focus on the period after the reception process began. The first of these four sections refers to the ius commune as current law in Catalonia; the second to the situation of Roman law with regard to the Decreto de Nueva Planta (1716); the third to the Spanish Civil Code of 1889; and the fourth refers to the legislative systems in Spain's autonomous regions (1932, 1978).

‘Gothicæ leges fuerunt prima cathalanorum iura’

The liber iudiciorum

The Latin terms Liber Iudiciorum (book of trials) and Liber Iudicum (book of judges) were used without distinction to refer to the written law applied in Catalonia before and after it was invaded by the Moors, between 715 and 720, following the key Battle of Guadelete in 711. In Spanish it was known as Fuero Juzgo. It had been laid down (c.654) by the Visigoth king Rescesvint (649–72), to provide a single law for the Visigoth and Roman populations of the Iberian peninsula.