Posesión y propiedad en las disputas por jurisdicción (Aralar-Enirio, 1615-1735)

Since the Middle Ages, the concepts of property and jurisdiction have acquired an unparalleled complexity, with categorizations and subdivisions resulting in a constant overlap in the same space of both domains and jurisdictions. From the 16th century onwards, new economic circumstances (population pressure, market modifications, and exploitation of new resources) and political circumstances (Atlantic expansion and imperial disputes on the continent) also led to the proliferation of political bodies with jurisdictional powers. From the perspective of legal history, this meant a challenge to the effectiveness of the legal categories that delimited the exercise of power since they now had to be applied to a much broader and more diverse territorial context. This new jurisdictional reality also led to a new language for the dispute over the uses of common mountains and saws, given the constant attempt by the municipalities to apply proprietary logic to the jurisdiction they now possessed. This article will present a case of mobilization of the concept of possession during the modern period to address jurisdictional issues on lands of common use. I will focus on the disputes between the Gipuzkoan towns that today make up the Aralar-Enirio community, a supra-municipal body dedicated to the shared administration of these saws, emphasizing both the primacy of the concept of possession and the intensification of the relationship between property and jurisdiction.