Regalía de las aguas públicas y dominio público hidráulico

Abstract

Hasta la promulgación de la Ley de 3 de agosto de 1866 sobre dominio, uso y aprovechamiento de aguas, en la España Peninsular el derecho sobre esta materia se adscribía a dos grandes tradiciones jurídicas: castellana y valenciana. Esta última, que informaría la susodicha norma, primer código español y europeo al respecto, acabaría por prevalecer, merced al destacado protagonismo en la redacción de aquélla del prestigio jurista Antonio Rodríguez de Cepeda, catedrático de Derecho Administrativo de la Universidad de Valencia, Decano de la Facultad de Derecho y del Colegio de Abogados, profundo conocedor del derecho de aguas valenciano. En la distinción del derecho foral valenciano entre aguas públicas y privadas, concepto el primero de contenido notoriamente más amplio que en las Partidas, quedaban sometidas aquéllas a la titularidad y dominio del Real Patrimonio. Dicha regalía sobre aguas públicas se halla en los orígenes del dominio público hidráulico que, ampliado y enriquecido por la Ley 29/1985, regula el modificado Texto Refundido de la Ley de Aguas.

Before the enactment of the Law dated August 3rd 1866 concerning the domain, use and exploitation of water, rights regarding this issue were subject to the two major legal traditions in Peninsular Spain at that time, namely the Castilian and the Valencian systems. The latter, which would form the basis of the above-mentioned law, was the first Spanish and European legal code to deal with the subject. It largely prevailed due to the important role played in drafting it by the renowned jurist Antonio Rodríguez de Cepeda, Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Valencia, Dean of the Faculty of Law and the Bar Association and a leading expert on Valencian water law. In the distinction made by Valencian autonomous law between public and private waters, where the former concept is markedly broader in content than in the Partidas (the body of common laws drawn up by Alfonso X), these were subject to the ownership and domain of Royal Patrimony. Said prerogative over public waters is found in the origin of public hydraulic domain which, expanded and enriched by Law 29/1985, regulates the modified Revised Text of the Law of Waters.