Die romanistische forschung in Slowenien

Abstract

The research of Roman law is inseparably connected to the development of legal teaching in Europe. Until the Second World War, Roman law represented an essential part of the legal curricula at European faculties of law. The advantages of studying Roman law were obvious: by understanding the intricacies of Roman law, the student could perceive the legal system as a whole, develop a precise and concise legal language, learn to comprehensively and precisely analyse legal texts, learn the historical and social dimensions of law, become familiar with the Latin legal terminology the lingua franca of the learned lawyers, etc. The teaching of Roman law went hand in hand with its research. As the presence of Roman law in the legal curricula has been considerably diminished during the last decades, so has the research thereof. It would be wrong, however, to abandon further research of Roman law. In some form, both teaching and research of Roman law are essential for the legal studies if we want to educate legal intellectuals and not mere legal technicians. The research of Roman law in Slovenia can be divided into two periods, with the First World War representing the dividing line. Before the First World War, there was no Slovenian university and because of that no research of Roman law in the Slovenian language. The paper presents some researchers in the field of Roman law of Slovenian origin who were active at foreign universities. The first among them was Martin Pegius (1508? -1592). He was a counsellor to the Bishop of Salzburg and published some important legal works reprinted several times, stretching all the way to the first half of the XVIII century. Jurij Wohinz (Bohinc 1618-1684) was a professor of Digest in Vienna, Janez Josip Dinzl (1666-1686) was a professor of law in Ingolstadt Franc Ksaver Jelenc (1749-1805) was a professor in Innsbruck and in Freiburg i. Br., Tomaž Dolinar (1760-1839) was a professor of canon and Roman law in Vienna. Jurij Dolinar (1764-1858) was the first to teach Roman law in Ljubljana at the university founded by the French Provinces of Illyria in 1809. Janez Kopač (1793-1872) was probably the last professor of Roman law of Slovenian origin teaching abroad. He was a professor of Roman law in Innsbruck and in Graz. The research of Roman law in Slovenian language and in the territory of the present-day Slovenia started with the foundation of the Slovenian university in 1919. The main researchers and professors of Roman law in Slovenia after the First World War were Anton Skumovič (1864-1952), Gregor Krek (1875-1942), Viktor Korošec (1899-1985) and Ciril Kržišnik (1909-1999). At present there are two professors and researchers in the field of Roman law in Slovenia: Marko Kambič and the author of this article.