It has been held that the traditional Catalan design of the legitime or forced share is, together with the testator's freedom and closely linked to it, the main distinguishing feature of the Catalan law of succession. And this is even more the case since the 2008 reform, by which Book IV of the Catalan Civil Code (hereinafter, CCCat) was enacted, and other traditional principles of Catalan succession were severely eroded.

This paper aims to provide an overview of the legal regulation of same sex couples in Spain and Catalonia. It will present how regulations have evolved, from legal disregard of same sex couples to the admission of same sex marriages by the Spanish Law in 2005, upheld by the Spanish Constitutional Court. Reference will be made to Catalan law, as it provided the first comprehensive regulation on same-sex cohabitation. And finally, it will highlight some challenges still faced by same sex couples, as regards assisted reproduction.

As we speak about Family Law, I want to begin my exposition with a concise picture of the Catalan society and the “Catalan family”. Our concept of family, like other neighboring societies, has changed substantially in relation to the preceding generations. Catalonia today is an aging society with rather low fertility, increasing divorce rates and a large increase in the number of single households (the result of an increased life expectancy). Furthermore, the man is no longer the only household member who contributes to household income; in more and more families both men and women engage in paid employment. The female employment rate has risen in a big way, which explains that the average age for a first marriage is over thirty years for both women and men. This fact means in practice that Catalonian couples have few children: one, two, or as a heroic common project, three.

This question could become the shortest presentation ever made, as the answer is so simple: YES! But in order to make it clear, we must take a look into the different arguments and scenarios surrounding the Catalan process.

Land use law or zoning law (Derecho urbanístico, in Spanish, or Droit de l'urbanisme, in French) deals with the regulation ofland use. The regulation of urban planning is a part of that legal branch. Urban planning decides about the existence and situation of housing (including affordable housing), green areas, schools and other important infrastructures in the cities.

Human Right to Environment is one the most relevant Third Generation Human Rights which includes new universal needs arisen from the last third of 20th century. These new human rights add as an additional layer to the First Generation Human Rights (civil and political rights from the end of 18th century) and to the Second Generation Human Rights (economic, social and cultural rights from 19th century).

The presentation will provide an overview of the copyright issues related with the implementation of Open Access policies. It will focus on the need to obtain permission to reproduce and disseminate a copy of any published paper taking into account any copyright transfer signed by authors. This permission is needed to implement Green Open Access policies through repositories. Moreover it will explore the use of open content licenses in repositories and journals to move to the Gold Open Access model that offers not only free access to full text but full reuse of contributions.

This article outlines free online legal resources to conduct research on Catalan and Spanish legislation and case-law. Most of these resources are primary sources made public by government bodies. The list shows how the Spanish and Catalan governments, in their attempt to promote equal access to legislation and case-law, cover the different jurisdictions. The text also mentions some resources to conduct historical legal research about legislation and case law, and some free legal private websites.