Portugal and Brazil
Nowadays, both in Portugal and Brazil, the comarca is a territorial division in the judicial system. It indicates the area covered by a lower level court. It may correspond to a municipality, or group together several small municipalities under one court.
Until the 16th century, the comarca was a large administrative region of Portugal. There were six tradicional comarcas, Entre-Douro-e-Minho, Trás-os-Montes, Beira, Estremadura, Alentejo and Algarve, of which the last had the honorary title of "kingdom". In the 16th century, the comarcas started to be known as "provinces". The name "comarca" was given to the administrative and judicial subdivisions of the provinces, introduced in the 17th century and replaced by the current administrative districts and judicial comarcas in the 19th century.
Read more about this topic: Comarca