The Public Education Act of September 9, 1857, known as the Moyano Act, consolidated the establishment of the liberal university and put an end to any vestiges of the old medieval universities. Higher education was entrusted to ten universities, including the University of Valencia, with uniform governance and teaching structures that were tightly controlled by the central government.

Article 270 of that law established that “at the head of each faculty there shall be a Dean appointed by the Government from among the professors of that faculty, at the proposal of the Rector.” The figure of the Dean was established as the highest representative of the Faculty, although with few powers and no autonomy. Despite what the law said, the position of Dean was slow to become a reality in the embryonic liberal university. The education system suffered from the political and social upheavals of the 19th century—and later those of the 20th century—with continuous and sometimes contradictory legal regulations, which meant that in many of those universities, organizational structures were slow to take root. Hence, the first Dean we know of at the Faculty of Law of Valencia was appointed fourteen years later, in 1871, the Professor of Political Economy, Antonio Rodríguez de Cepeda.

From then until today, a series of professors, and well into the 20th century the first woman, have assumed this responsibility for the management of our Faculty—students, professors, and administrative and service staff. This responsibility is in service of the role that the Valencia Law School plays in society. A school forged in a long history—more than five centuries—but one that looks to the future to continue fulfilling the public service for which it was created: higher education for future generations.