Florencio García Goyena (1783 in

Tafalla Tafalla is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain. Tafalla lies 30 km south of Pamplona, in the valley of the Zidacos river, which is a tributary of the Aragón. The population in Janua ...

Navarre Navarre ( ; ; ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre, is a landlocked foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Autonomous Community, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and New Aquitaine in France. ...

– 1855) was a Spanish jurist. García Goyena studied law in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and

Salamanca Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...

before serving as legal counsel to the

Cortes Cortes, Cortés, Cortês, Corts, or Cortès may refer to: People * Cortes (surname), including a list of people with the name ** Hernán Cortés (1485–1547), a Spanish conquistador Places * Cortes, Navarre, a village in the South border of ...

Navarra Navarre ( ; ; ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre, is a landlocked foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Autonomous Community, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and New Aquitaine in France. ...

and the governors of the provinces of Léon,

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

and

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

. A liberal, he went into French exile from 1823 to 1834. Back in Spain, he served as fiscal of

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...

and as official in the provinces of Navarra,

Guipúzcoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantique ...

and Zaragoza. In 1835, García Goyena was appointed a judge of the appeals court in Burgos and later of the ''Audiencia'' and the Supreme Court in Madrid. In 1847 he briefly served as Minister of Justice. From 12 September to 4 October 1847, he served as

Prime Minister of Spain The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government (), is the head of government of Spain. The prime minister nominates the Spanish government departments, ministers and chairs the Council of Ministers (Spain), Council of Mini ...

. He chaired a commission that produced, in 1851, a draft

civil code A civil code is a codification of private law relating to property law, property, family law, family, and law of obligations, obligations. A jurisdiction that has a civil code generally also has a code of civil procedure. In some jurisdiction ...

for Spain, most of it written by García Goyena. Although the code was not adopted due to the strong opposition of leading regional families, who saw their power base threatened by the proposed harmonisation of regional inheritance and property laws, it was the basis of the codification later accomplished by Alonso Martínez in 1888/89.

References

* 1783 births 1855 deaths People from Navarre Prime ministers of Spain 19th-century Spanish lawyers Moderate Party (Spain) politicians Justice ministers of Spain {{Spain-law-bio-stub