Doctrinal reception of European (Roman) law tradition in post-Ottoman Serbia

Abstract

After the liberation from long Turkish occupation during XIX century, and some temporary influence of Sharia law, Serbia was able to turn again towards its European roots, and especially towards its rich legal tradition. The normative reception of the Roman law tradition could have been obtained in Serbia only upon reaching higher level of economic standards and basic legal education. Thereof, the doctrinal reception which included establishing certain educational institutions, language standardization, and, especially, the existence of the corresponding legal terminology, had to come first. Legal subjects at the Belgrade Higher School (established in 1808) and Lyceum (1838), was gradually developed into the Legal department, that would grow into the Faculty of Law. But, the other centers that influenced the general development of Serbian culture were out of borders of Serbia, in Vienna, Pest, and especially in Vojvodina (Sremski Karlovci, Novi Sad). The ideology of the new-born Serbian bourgeoisie, based on Roman law principles of inviolability of private proprety, was opposite to the old patriarchal mentality, based on collective ownership and mutual solidarity. Anyway, so-called original accumulation of capital was protected by regulations of the Serbian Civil Code (1844). Parallely, at the academic level, Roman Law was established as a separate subject in 1853 and was headed by professor Rajko Lešjanin. He had completed his legal studies at prestigious West-European universities, like many other Serbian romanists in the XIX centuries (Mihajlo Radovanović, Dragiša Mijušković, Giga Geršić, Živko Milosavljević et al.). Apart from strong spiritual and religious connection between the Serbian and Russian people, Serbian intellectuals obtained not only high education, but they also brought liberal and democratic ideas in the Serbian Principality from the West.