ABSTRACT
Like all legal systems, the Spanish Private Law is substantially a product of history.1 Therefore, social, political and economic circumstances converge in the formation of Private Law in each historical period. Two dominant influences have determined the evolution of Spanish Private Law, and, in particular, Spanish Civil Law: Roman Law that the Roman colonization of the Iberian Peninsula brought with it; and Germanic Law that barbarian invasion imposed thereon after the collapse of the Roman Empire. However, the present form of Spanish Civil Law is also intensely conditioned by another legal-political factor. The Iberian Peninsula fragmented into several kingdoms and territories that although sharing common roots, developed independently and separately their own civil legal systems (historical civil legal systems were: Castilian Law, Aragonese Law, Catalan Law, Law of Navarre and Balearic Law). Differing social and economic conditions among these territories have led to a plural and complex system likely to incorporate a series of Spanish Civil legal systems.
