Fuero (Span.; Portuguese, foral, foraes; Galician, foro; Gascoun, fors; Lat. forum), a term used in different senses. (1) The title of a law code, Fuero Juzgo, the so-called legislation of the Gothic kings of Spain; Fuero Real, &c. (2) The municipal charters of privileges granted by kings, lords, and monastic bodies to inhabitants of towns—Leon (1020), Najera (1035), Sahagun (1085), &c., especially to towns deserted or recaptured from the Moors, or those used for frontier defence—e.g. Oloron, in Béarn (1080). Sometimes these charters were offered especially to foreigners, Fueros Francos.
Charters granted to attract settlers and those given by the royal power must be distinguished from others; fueros based on legislation long antecedent and flourishing, e.g. those of Lerida (1228), were compiled 'de statutis scriptis et non scriptis, et moribus et usatibus, etiam legibus Goticis et Romanis.' The term is also applied to the capitulations granted to Moors and Jews, the oldest of which is that of Huesca (1089). (3) Modes and tenures of property, succession, &c., nearly equivalent to the French coutumes, usages, or customary law—e.g. El Foro de Galicia, Los Fors et Costumas de Béarn, &c. The date of the writing down of this class of fueros is no measure at all of their real antiquity. (4) The whole body of legislation and the constitution of certain practically autonomous states and communities in northern Spain and south-western France—e.g. the fueros of the provincias Vascongadas, Biscay, Alava, and Guipuzcoa; in a slightly less degree of autonomy, the fueros of Navarre; and of a still less, those of Aragon, of Béarn, &c.
Groups 1 and 2 we may pass over to be studied in the documents special to each case. Group 3 is of far greater importance. In it we find traces of customs and tenures which have long disappeared from other codes, and the origin of which belongs to the tribal or pastoral condition of society. There are also anomalies not to be fully explained by our present knowledge, as the derecho consuetudinario of Upper Aragon, identical with the house community of the southern Slavs, though there is no apparent racial or other connection with the Slavs. In the chief region of these fueros, from the borders of Catalonia to Santander, there is no trace in the foral legislation of Gothic or Teutonic influence. Within the states of class 4, and outside them in the same region, were various kinds of autonomies, or local self-governments, municipalities, federations of towns, valleys, districts, communes, each with its own special fuero. The term republicas, republiques was often applied to these communities in transactions between themselves, as also by the kings of Spain in the Cortes of Navarre, to the Basque provinces, and to the separate valleys and communes down to the French Revolution.
The chief provision of the fueros, whereby these communities preserved their autonomy, was a freely elected legislative body, chosen according to the methods customary in each district, meeting at a given place at given times. This assembly was called the junta in the separate Basque provinces, with the Junta General meeting at the oak of Guernica in Biscay, Cortes in Navarre, Etats in Béarn, Bilzaar in the Labourd, Cort, Tilhabet, &c., in the lesser communities. In these assemblies the right of taxation was jealously guarded. The contribution to the king was the last vote taken, after all grievances had been redressed and petitions heard, and then only as a voluntary gift. The repartition of taxes to individuals was in the hands of each separate community. Freedom of commerce existed, with few or no customs-duties. The levy and command of the military forces of the states remained in their own power; the number of soldiers was fixed, with no compulsion to serve beyond the confines of the province, unless with consent of the juntas, &c., and for payment guaranteed. This did not prevent voluntary service of individuals. Jurisdiction of all kinds was in their own power. In all matters relating to property, land-tenure, inheritance, &c., even in particular families, the local customs or fueros overrode both the general fueros and the general laws either of Spain or of France; only the nobles or Infanzones were subject to these. Under this constitution the Basque provinces flourished, and supported the largest population per square mile in Spain, with the exception of Galicia, until the middle of the present century. On the death of Ferdinand VII. (1833), the liberal regency hesitated to confirm the fueros. Don Carlos, the late king's brother, raised the standard of revolt. The seven years' war was ended by the Convention of Vergara, 30th August 1839, and Isabella confirmed the fueros. Don Carlos, grandson of the first, headed the second Carlist war (1872-76). It resulted in the loss of the fueros of the provinces, which will gradually become assimilated to the rest of Spain. In France, save for the management of the communal property in some parishes, the fors were swept away by the Revolution and the Code Napoleon, though some traces still remain in the habits and customs of the people.
See the article BASQUES, and the following special books: Marichalar y Manrique, Historia de la Legislación Civil en España (vol. ii. 2d ed. Madrid, 1868); Muñoz Rivero, Colección de Fueros Municipales (Madrid, 1847); Catálogo de Fueros y Cartas-Pueblas de España (R. Academia de Historia, Madrid, 1852); Mazure et Hatoulet, Fors de Béarn (Pau, 1842); G. B. de Lagrèze, La Navarre Française (Paris, 1881); the last editions of the separate Fueros published in each province at Zaragoza, Pamplona, Tolosa, Bilbao.