The first Historical Studies event was held on Monday 14 April. Entitled “Institutions and Power in Catalonia”, it was organised by the faculties of Humanities and Law along with the Historical Studies Group at UIC Barcelona. The event included aspects of law and humanities to analyse how law and justice were established in Catalonia in medieval times. 

The aim of this talk was to analyse the political and legal mechanisms that institutions have used to defend not only what is legal but also what is fair, since medieval times. In order to achieve this there was participation from different lecturers from the areas of law and humanities, among them Josep Cañabate from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), who gave a talk entitled: “Catalonia in the 19th-century Spanish constitutional state: from the liberal Constitution of Cádiz to the federalism of the Six Democratic Years”.

Josep Maria Solé i Sabater also participated in the event, he is a full professor at the same university as Cañabate, the UAB, and he talked about “Spain and the Catalan Commonwealth”. Also, lecturer Josep Capdeferro from Pompeu Fabra University also participated in this event by giving a talk on: “Defence of the Constitution of Observance and the Court of Contraventions”.

The event began with an opening session, given by the dean of the Faculty of Huanities, Dr Judith Urbano, and lecturer Eduard Martí. Subsequently, different lecturers from UIC Barcelona and visitors presented the various topics.  For example, Xavier Baró, one of our lecturers from the Faculty of Humanities at UIC Barcelona talked about “The Catalan language during the Baroque period: between apology, derision and pragmatism”. 

Two debates were also held, and the closing address was given by the dean of the Faculty of Law, Pilar Fernández, and Josep Serrano, a lecturer from the Faculty of Law.