Cerdos y otras bestias. Pastos comunales/pastos públicos en la Lex Visigothorum

The existence of communal property, or a public use of common possessions, is rather elusive in the historiography on the peasant history of late-antique Hispania. Apart from the undoubted role of livestock in the economy of the period, laws on common fruits or shared pastures are scarce and equivocal. The rules on collective appropriations appear in the Visigothic legal corpus subordinated to the overwhelming supremacy of private property and its litigation. On the other hand, the idea of «common» must be understood in a consortial sense, linked to the condition of owners of the beneficiaries, it being very difficult to find a sense of open use for individuals outside the collective ownership or neighbourhood.