Las penas corporales en el derecho hispánico e inglés en la Edad Media: Estudio comparado

Abstract

In this work a comparative study of the classification of corporal punishments in the Spanish and English Law during the Early and Late Middle Ages is addressed. The purpose is to identify the differences and similarities in the corporal punishment methods. The differences are more marked in the Early Middle Ages, while the Visigoth legislation, mainly contained in Liber, sanctions most of the crimes committed by slavish prisoners with corporal punishments and the crimes committed by noble offenders with an out-of-court settlement, the English criminal law, built around the hieratic links of the tribe, is built around outlawry and blood-feud. The Anglo-Saxon royal punishment system, more homogeneous in the Late Middle Ages, is applied in all territories based on a simple classification of the crime: indemnifiable crime (misdemeanour), sanctioned by out-of-court settlements, and irreparable crime (felony and treason), punished by corporal punishment consisting of “member and life”. On the other hand, in Spanish territories, corporal punishments were given for crimes without any clear classification, and also because each territory had their own criminal sanction.