Valencia water court

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The Valencia water court

The water court of Valencia (Spanish El Tribunal de las Aguas or El Tribunal de los Acequieros de la Vega , val. Tribunal de les Aigües or Tribunal de la Vega de València ) is considered the oldest legal institution in Europe and the only institution of its kind that from the Arab times was preserved. The water court was registered together with the Consejo de Hombres Buenos de la Huerta de Murcia on September 30, 2009 by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity . It is a unique public process in which disputes between the farmers and landowners of the surrounding area ( Huerta ) over the irrigation of the fields are settled.

Seat of the Benacher y Faytanar district

The tribunal, consisting of eight black-clad judges (span. Síndicos), meets every Thursday (except on public holidays and between Christmas and Epiphany) at noon in front of the Apostle portal of the Cathedral of Valencia in the Plaza de la Virgen . Shortly before twelve o'clock, a bailiff erects an iron railing in the shape of a semicircle with an entrance door and eight wooden chairs. The lay judges are elected from among the farmers of the eight irrigation districts of the Huerta de Valencia ( Cuart , Benacher y Faytanar , Tormos , Mislata , Mestalla , Fabara , Rascaña and Robella ). A president is elected from among the eight judges, who traditionally comes from the districts of Fabara or Tormos. Legitimized by the Spanish Constitution, the judgments given orally by the tribunal are incontestable. Apart from the verdicts, no court files are kept and there is no possibility of appealing against judgments made by the council. The continuous existence of the court for over a thousand years, the unbroken respect for those involved, as well as the procedural principles, which meet modern requirements, make the water court unique.

Tribunal de las Aguas by Bernardo Ferrándiz (1865)

The beginnings of the water court go back to the Middle Ages around 960 AD during the reign of the caliphs of Cordoba Abd ar-Rahman III. and al-Hakam II. Even at that time, negligent use of water was severely punished because the region's water scarcity meant that irrigation systems had to be used. Particularly in times of drought, when the Turia hardly had any water, a uniform regulation of the irrigation of the surrounding area became necessary. Both the type of irrigation and the day or place of the court are of Arabic origin. The Moorish Saturday falls on the Christian Thursday, on which the tribunal has met since the beginning at twelve noon (Arab day end). When the Christian cathedral was built in the 13th century on the remains of the mosque in which the court was originally held, the tribunal was held in front of the gates of the church to enable Muslims who were still cultivating fields in large numbers , were allowed to participate. King James I of Aragon then confirmed the continuation of the tribunal with all the rights that it had in Arab times. Even if the ceremony only lasts a few minutes today due to the lack of disputes, it has not lost any of its original function and has become an attraction for tourists.

Web links

Official website (with detailed maps)

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