Original scientific paper
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION WITH REGARD TO SPECIFICS OF THE STATUTE LAW IN DALMATIA
Antun Cvitanić
; Split
Abstract
Trying to establish the specifics of the mediaeval statute law in Dalmatia, the author states that – compared with the statutes of the so called »Royal Free Citles« in the hinterland – the genesis of the Dalmatian statutes was different. The right to autonomy, i. e. the right of laying down statutory norms of their own the Dalmatian cities have not obtained for being more closely tied to the ruler in his struggle with the feudal lords in his realm, but owing to the cities’ particular position with regard to their Roman tradition and the sosvereign’s intention to discourage the cities from asking »protection« from another sovereign. The autonomy of the Dalmatian cities basing upon the statute law was wider than that granted by the sovereigns to the so called »Royal Free Cities«. Such a freedom, however, did not imply democracy, since only the nobility of the commune, and neither citizens at large nor the peasants were entitled to regulate, through the highest organ, the grand council, and by means of statutory reroslutions, legal matters concerning social relations.
The author then concludes:
The Dalmatian Statute Law consists of a series of norms of mediaeval autonomous communes in Dalmatia, mostly contained in the communal statues and sanctioned by the ruling nobility of the commune. Those norms, together with the respective common law, regulate all legal matters concerning social relations in the commune, protecting, first of all, the interests of the nobility versus those of the common people, including the peasantry. The norms were originally formulated on the basis of concrete needs, but have benefited from elements of the Roman, Byzantine, and church laws, as well as from the laws existing in the cities on the Apennine Peninsula, and from Slavic legal elements. The particular feudal character of social relations is reflected in those laws, while at the same time the beginings of the early capitalistic economy come into view in an indistinct form.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
160294
URI
Publication date:
24.12.1980.
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