Natural Equity in the code of Bello

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze the concept of natural equity used by Andrés Bello for the interpretation of the civil code. Of course, anyone interested in this subject faces not only methodological difficulties -inherent in any research that seeks to reconstruct the thought or intention of a legislator- but also bibliographical: there is no document in which Bello develops in depth the concept of natural equity, but mere references and allusions -some quite pejorative-. Despite this, and perhaps due to the unique intelligence of caracas, it included important doctrinal references to each article of the code, which will serve as a roadmap to carry out this research. This will allow us to observe that the concept of natural equity used by Bello has important natural legal and moral connotations, but not as a simple reference to the good and the just -which could give way to judicial arbitration-, but to the legal tradition. Natural equity, for Bello, is nothing more than legal experience, accumulated in books, judgments and other documents; it is the prudence proper to the jurist, which he acquires through the study and reflection of law, but which acquires a sense of reality in the daily exercise of the profession.