Rechtsgeschichte - Legal History

Journal of the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History

No. 26

José María Portillo

"Corpus mysticum and cuerpo de nación. Modernity and the End of a Catholic Empire"

Abstract

Traditionally, historiography on the dissolution of the Spanish Empire focused on the transition from monarchy to nations and from empire to independent states. I propose here to consider another aspect of this process that has to do with the transition from a Catholic imperial monarchy to Catholic nations and republics. This essay explores the relevance of the corpus mysticum in the public space, and how it to a great extent determined the understanding of the reach of the constituent power of the cuerpo de nación.

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