LA TRANSFORMACIÓN LIBERAL DE LA PROPIEDAD: UN ESTUDIO JURÍDICO COMPARADO ENTRE LA DESAMORTIZACIÓN ESPAÑOLA Y LA REFORMA AGRARIA DE ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA – 1855-1864
THE LIBERAL TRANSFORMATION OF PROPERTY: A COMPARATIVE LEGAL STUDY OF THE SPANISH DISENTAILMENT AND THE AGRARIAN REFORM OF ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA – 1855-1864

Summary/Abstract: This article conducts a comparative legal analysis of the property transformation processes in Spain and Romania during the 19th century. It examines, on one hand, the Spanish disentailment process (desamortización), highlighting Mendizábal and Madoz as its primary exponents. On the other hand, it analyzes the secularization of monastic assets and the subsequent agrarian reform carried out by Alexandru Ioan Cuza in the United Principalities of Romania. The study focuses on the transition from linked and manorial land tenure systems, characteristic of the Ancien Régime, toward the model of private property, inherent to liberalism and enshrined by 19th-century codification. Through a legal-historical methodology, the paper analyzes how these processes were not merely economic reforms but acts of state sovereignty that enabled legal unification and the consolidation of the Liberal State. It concludes that, despite the differences observed between Spain and Romania, both nations employed Civil and Administrative Law as key instruments for dismantling Ancien Régime structures. This process established a new framework of registered legal certainty while simultaneously posing profound social challenges arising from the disappearance of communal forms of exploitation.

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