Per a "esquivar tota sospita i engany": les regles essencials per a la formació de la voluntat de la Universitas i el procediment d'adopció d'acords dels consells municipals de Catalunya a través dels llibres d'actes (Cervera, 1332-1333)

Abstract

Based on the record of deliberations and resolutions of the Council of Cervera (Lleida) from 1332 and 1333 one of the oldest preserved records in Catalonia this paper examines who made the motions for resolutions, how they were drawn up, what quorum was needed to reach valid resolutions, who adopted the resolutions, how they were reached and based on what type of majority, in addition to what discrepancies arose; reference is also made to the legal and political concepts in the resolutions and the procedure leading to them. The analysis of this volume of municipal resolutions showcases how certain customary rules of administrative procedure arose which became a vital component in the smooth shaping of the council's decisions as an expression of the will of the universitas or municipal body. The transposition of the ius commune, which entails the notion of legal status via the concept of universitas and of the organisational device of the consilium, calls for the establishment of rules of operation and decision-making; it concerns the will of a single entity through the figment of the legal entity. The municipal council came to constitute the organisational device or structure through which the universitas established its will and conveyed it to its addressees.