Integrity and borders of medieval juridical consciousness: the example of Spain

The juridical consciousness, language, sign system of the Middle Ages, are the unified system reflecting integrity of a society. However borders with necessity exist and define society existence. The border represents a condition for existence of the society, and also the concrete individual. The boundary consciousness is peculiar to the Mediterranean civilizations. The Iberian culture was created in virtue of the different ancient cultures influence, and it caused its features during Middle Ages epoch when the nation came into being. The law of medieval Spain is symbolical and ritual. On the other hand, such distinctive feature as integrity, universality is peculiar to it. This characteristic was introduced into the Spanish legal culture from the Roman law. It was conducive to create the integrative system of the government, to consolidate the people of different grades of legal development. Visigoths and Arabs, who launched invasion on peninsula later, accepted this universal legal system that helped them to hold the subdued people in submission. During the centuries of the Arabian invasion, integrity of the juridical consciousness remains. Christian religion becomes a basis for the phenomenon. It forms identity of the nation. On the other hand, the realization of borders is also formed. Communications on borders give rise to new types of legal relations. New social groups emerge. The government is obliged to create the system of the law which would consider not only interests and aims of the groups divided by borders, but also those people who was found in transboundary groups. Subsequently it leads to the forming in politic and legal culture of Spain such a quality as tendency to the compromise. The compromise and universality combination creates the special type of legal culture and juridical consciousness which allows saying about such phenomenon as boundary legal culture on Iberian Peninsula. It was necessary for identity formation. In the article the combination of integrity and borders in medieval juridical consciousness is studied, and the Spanish case is considered as an example.