Dušanov zakonik

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The "Prizren copy" of Stefan Dušan's code of law, 15th century.

Dušanov zakonik ( Serbian - Cyrillic Душанов законик ) is a code of law of the Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan .

In 1349 Tsar Dušan had a comprehensive code of law with 135 paragraphs published at a diet in Skopje , the capital of his empire at that time. The Code was later revised and 136 paragraphs were added. The extended version was published in Serres in 1354 . The code is considered to be the first comprehensive code of law of the Serbian medieval state.

The role of the Serbian tsars and kings as defenders of the Orthodox Church and Christianity is laid down in it, as are civil rights , property rights and church administration , i.e. public and private life. For example, widows and orphans are assured that they will receive social assistance . For human rights and criminal law, it is relevant that defendants and prisoners of war have been granted rights and that torture does not occur. The Dušanov Code also contains elements of a basic law , which is why some historians see it as a kind of constitution .

history

Contrary to popular belief, the code of Tsar Stefan Dušan was not the first written code of law in medieval Serbia. The currently oldest known law book of medieval Serbia was the Nomocanon of the Sava of Serbia , which was expanded under King Milutin . The nomocanon was based mainly on the canon law of the Orthodox Church and was inadequate for the new political circumstances under Tsar Dušan. Dušan conquered large parts of the Byzantine Empire at that time , in which the more complex Byzantine law was firmly anchored for centuries .

To take this into account and to secure his rule, which was supposed to unite the supporters of the Eastern Church in particular, Dušan issued precise regulations for public and private life, based on old Serbian customary law , canon law , and Byzantine imperial laws. Dušan's code of law contains some comments on the “Sintagma” by Matthaios Blastares (a Byzantine monk and scholastic in the 14th century) and the Codex Iustinianus . Dušan also tried to counteract the looming licentiousness of the nobility, which became richer and more powerful under his policy of conquest.

His code of law was to be applied uniformly throughout the empire; in practice, particularly remote parts of the empire retained the older customary law or knew how to preserve their autonomy, like the trading towns on the coast. Thus, the new code of law could only prevail to a limited extent, which was partly due to the less consistent policy under Dušan's successor Stefan Uroš and the Ottoman advance. Some elements of the code, such as the position of the peasants and the Wallachians , can later be found in Ottoman law.

Web links

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  1. ↑ Predrag Jeremić (ed.), 100 najznamenitijih Srba, Beograd: Princip [u. a.] 2001, p. 41ff., summarized in: Wolf Oschlies, Mutter Theresa. The youth in Skopje. Klagenfurt: Wieser, 2009, p. 62.