LA COMPETENCIA DE LOS CÓNSULES EN LOS ACTOS DE JURISDICCIÓN VOLUNTARIA MERCANTILES. HISTORIA, TRADICIÓN, ACTUALIDAD Y CONVENIENTE REFORMA. (Spanish)

COMPETENCE OF CONSULS IN CASES OF VOLUNTARY JURISDICTION IN COMERCIAL LAW. HISTORY. TRADITION. PRESENT STATE AND CONVENIENT REFORM. (English)

Consuls and Consulate are a historic institution of Roman Public law, with origins in Rome during the Republic, where it was consolidated and then extinguished. In the Low Middle Ages it arose as private right, and arrived in Spain from the Italian Republics, to defend the juridical interests of the merchants who would exercise a «special» private law which they would apply within a «special privileged mercantile jurisdiction «which would govern juridically «their» matters, whether of contentious or voluntary jurisdiction. In the 19th century, this institution became public in order to defend the commercial interests of the State, in the foreign country where its Consulates were situated. In 1868 The Mercantile Jurisdiction disappeared its jurisdiction was subsumed into that of the Ordinary Civil Jurisdiction of the Court. Since then, Consuls and Consulates are an institution of public law and are servants of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to defend of the commercial interests of Spaniards, in the country where they are located. The LEC 1881 entrusted them the voluntary jurisdiction in mercantile matters, that today are still «in force» but exist in fact simply as «obsolete memories» of a bygone era. The approaching reform of this voluntary jurisdiction may be a pretext to entrust to our consuls and diplomatic personnel of our embassies, competence «in almost all matters» when they are requested by Spaniards who are located in those countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cónsules y Consulado son una Institución histórica. Nace en Roma, en la República, donde se consolida y extingue y es de Derecho Público Romano. En la Baja Edad Media surge como derecho privado, en las Repúblicas Italianas de donde llega a España, para defender los intereses jurídicos de los comerciantes que van a «disponer» de un derecho «especial» privado que éstos aplican dentro de una «jurisdicción especial privilegiada mercantil» que tutela jurídicamente «sus» asuntos sean jurisdicción contenciosa o voluntaria. En el S. xix, esta figura deviene pública para defender los intereses comerciales del Estado, en el país extranjero donde se hallan sus Consulados. En 1868 en España desaparece la jurisdicción mercantil cuyo cometido es asumido por la jurisdicción ordinaria en su orden civil. Desde entonces Cónsules y Consulados son una figura de derecho público, dependientes del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores para la defensa de los intereses comerciales españoles, en el país en que se hallan. La LEC 1881 les confía por tradición funciones mercantiles en la jurisdicción voluntaria que hoy estando aún «vigentes» son simples «recuerdos obsoletos» de otras épocas ya superadas. La cercana reforma de la jurisdicción voluntaria puede ser un pretexto para confiar a Cónsules y Personal Diplomático de nuestras Embajadas la competencia en «casi todos sus asuntos» cuando se solicite su intervención por españoles que están en esos países. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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