Historical introduction

Spain’s organisation into judicial parties — akin to legal jurisdictions — evolved in parallel with the country’s territorial division. The first use of the term “parties” dates to the sixteenth century and referred to an intermediate territorial entity linked to taxation. In the last phase of the former regime, the territory was divided into “corregiments” — country subdivisions for royal administrative purposes. Pallars Sobirà depended on the Talarn-based corregiment. Within this area, the administration of justice was divided between the “corregidor”, which had jurisdiction over the territory, although only exercised this power in the city where he lived and five around it, and the mayors, who had the same role in their municipalities, becoming the first instance of ordinary jurisdiction¹.

In the 19th century, the judicial organogram of the former absolutist regime was abolished. The Cortes of Cádiz ratified national sovereignty and the principle of the division of state powers, between the legislative, executive and judicial branches. Prior to that, in 1811, jurisdictional lordships had been incorporated into the nation, paving the way for the abolition of feudal lordships and the implementation of unified law throughout the territory.

After the adoption of the Constitution in 1812, a new judicial institution was put into place, organised around the Supreme Court, the territorial courts and the judges of the judicial party. The judicial parties were regulated by Title V, article 237 of the Constitution: “Proportionally equal parties shall be established, and at the head of each party there shall be a Trial Judge, with a corresponding Court”. In this way, the former primarily fiscal parties also became vested with judicial powers.

Judicial parties had to deal with civil and criminal lawsuits, except for less serious cases, which fell within the mayors’ remit. At the same time, territorial rationalisation schemes were drawn up. The aim was for the law to be implemented more immediately, by choosing as capital of the party the town which “for its neighbourhood, proportions and other circumstances is most suitable for it”. This regulation set up a judicial party per every five thousand residents. The implementation of the judicial parties was complex because there was no homogeneous territorial division in the country, so the judicial organisation evolved in parallel with the territorial division of Spain and did not conclude until 1833, when the country was divided into provinces.

After the death of Ferran VII in 1834, a map of judicial parties was established based on the provinces that been delimited a few months earlier. This division was used as an electoral constituency in the next elections, in the General Courts of the Kingdom. The decree signed on 21 April 1834 in Aranjuez by Queen Regent Maria Cristina delimited 451 judicial parties. In the province of Lleida, the parties of Balaguer, Cervera, Lleida, Seu d’Urgell, Solsona, Sort, Talarn (with headquarters in Tremp) and Vielha were created. The Sort party included the current region of Pallars Sobirà plus the villages of the Vall Fosca.

In his book “Sort y Comarca Noguera Pallaresa” (1906), Agustí Coy y Cotonat, a military chaplain in the Spanish army from Sort, talks about the establishment of the Sort judicial party, “According to Moner, Sort has been capital of the judicial party of the same name since 1835; however, it seems to have been so since 1825. (…). The area of the district of Sort is 1,695 kilometres, with

15,126 inhabitants and it is made up of 36 Town Councils (…) as well as the villages added to them”². The first judges were the same ones that had been in office during Spanish absolutism. The mayors living in the party capital towns were provisionally appointed as Judges of First Instance. However, the intention was to have a lawyer at the head of the judicial party to deprive the mayors of any judicial power.