Reciprocidad mediterránea.

Abstract

Taking three main concepts (equity, analogy and reciprocity) as its strating point of discussion, the author shows the particular features of the juridical form of the Catholic countries in Southern Europe. As political models are influenced by the juridical conception of theological origin in Christian, Islamic and Jewish canon law, he suggests a polarization between strong law countries in which the law curtails the ability of judges to interpret the own law and countries in which the theological origin of the principles of law confer upon the judges wide atribution of interpretation through analogical and equitative readings. Equity has a central role in this view. It is the image which rules an unequal, hierarchical and corporative society which nevertheless is fair according to the principles of distributive justice: to everyone according to his social status. In this way, the principles of reciprocity need to be understood in the light of complex stratification of an unequal but equitative society. The existence of a double normative system, a civil law and a religious law alongside an institutional duplicity produces the fragility of state institutions and provokes the formation of a common sense of justice which many times is contradictory to the juridical rules. An anthropological approach can explain many features of Mediterranean political systems.