Cárceles públicas y privadas en el derecho medieval y castellano. el delito de cárceles particulares

Abstract

During the Middle Ages, private prisons were used in the differents Spanish kingdoms as well as public prisons. People used this kind of prisons in their own houses leaving the public authorities out, as a sign of their autonomy and as result of the power's weakness. Since the arrival of the ius commune in the XIIIth century, the private prison's crime appeared in the castilian law due to the recovery of the ius puniendi that concerned to the monarchy's power. The private prison's crime reached his highest development in the XIVth and XVth centuries. It was considered a crime of laesae maiestatis, and it was punished with the death penalty because injured the king's imperium. The establishment of a stronger public judicial administration in the modern period, mad an end of this situation.