Digital collection Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas (Madrid): Discursos de recepción y de contestación

The publication of the collection Discursos de recepción y de contestación of the Spanish Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas as a digital resource opens access for the research community to one of the most important resources for the legal history during the transition to the modern age (19th / 20th century). The collection contains all 159 treatises from the years 1857 till 1957.

The Discursos arose from the inaugural speeches of newly co-opted members of the academy and are always accompanied by a commentary (contestación) of one of the other members. They deal e.g. with the philosophy and dogmatism of law, political developments and the Social Question, with the relationship between philosophy, theology and law or the relationship between law and economy. The Discursos are programmatic treatises of the leading minds in an institution which dedicated itself to the questions arising from the academic steering of the Spanish society and its constitution.

The treatises have been digitized and academically prepared within a co-operative project with the Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas (Madrid). The majority of the Discursos contain neither indices nor chapter titles. An artificial table of contents has therefore been created for many of them. The content was summarised in abstracts, which also define their contemporary context. Spanish keywords offer additional possibilities for access. The scientific work was carried out by Friso Ross, Juan Jesús Moñivas Berlanas and Ana Llano Torres.