Reflexiones sobre el lenguaje del derecho de familia español. Entre derecho común y derechos forales

When we talk about legal Spanish, it is necessary to bear in mind that the Spanish language is the vehicle of different legal systems, not only at an international level, but also within the same country. In this regard, we focus on the particular separation of powers in Spain to deepen the issue of the autonomous communities and the special rights still in effect in some of them (Aragón, Baleares, Cataluña, Galicia, Navarra and País Vasco). The coexistence between the Spanish common civil law and the regional laws (derechos forales) not only generates conflicts in the Spanish civil jurisdiction, but also implies some linguistic peculiarities that affect the horizontal translation of different types of legal texts. After a brief history of the creation and legal evolution of Spanish regional laws (fueros), we will propose a glossary of simple and compound Spanish terms, regarding Family and Inheritance Law. These regional terms are characterized by having partial or zero functional equivalence with the Spanish and Italian common law. The object of analysis is the language of Family Law because it is characterized by a lot of technical terms and it is an area where regional laws interfere more with the common civil law. Therefore, this paper aims to offer some contribution to legal Spanish studies, by exploring the terminology of foral family laws and "the possibility of translating legal realities" (Borja Albi 2005) that don't exist in other legal systems.