Some aspects of the historical Penal Law in Spain

Abstract

This article analyses two different aspects of Penal Law of the Ancien Régime. First of all, it studies the global framework of the issue and the categories and types of crimes of the era, but above all, secondly, it analyses a paradigmatic penal case of the seventeenth century. The crime is the so-called "Ezpeleta trial", a murder whose processual witnesses included Miguel de Cervantes and his family; this element gives to the case a special value.

Keywords: Ancient Regime; Penal categories; Types of crime; Ezpeleta trial.