El Cort a Catalunya

The “cort” (“curia”) was a local judicial magistrature, whose existence was documented from around the beginning of the 12th century to the 14th century in the principal towns under the jurisdiction of counts and wich were repopulated with the expansion of the Catalan counties between the 9th and the 12th centuries. It was afected by feudalisation and urban development at the same time as it reflected the balance of power between the monarchy and the emerging municipal power. It adopted Roman forms but it disappeared between the end of the 13th century and the 14th century as a result of the implantation of the “batlles” (“baiulus”) and “veguers” (“vicarius”).