Original scientific paper
Who were maiores civitatis
Magdalena Apostolova Maršavelski
Abstract
The author comments on the controversial norm of the privilege of foundation to Gradec Zagrabiensis (1242/1266) by which the possibility of appeal on the level of the town was regulated. Maiores civitatis were former town judges whose one-year or multiple mandate had expired and who were summoned when the fist instance judgment had been contested and who, according to numerous indirect indicators to which the author refers in the article, also made decisions on the merits of the case and not only reviewed the contested impartiality of the suspected judge. In short, they were the second-degree instance, the same as one century later. The author thinks that according to the text of the basic privilege, maiores civilis were an exactly defined collegium with the same strictly defined competences, different according to functions and terminologically strictly separated from the collegium of town assessores. They made decisions on “business” on which the actual town court had already decided, and judging by the character of disputes in later practice, such second-degree instance, which could intervene in everyday routine activities, was the necessity of life, as it was also the need to control the work of the court. Such a conclusion is, among others, indicated by the fact that the dignity of the actual court during their short one-year mandate had to be ensured not only by a rigorous fine, but also by frightening corporal punishment introduced for the first time. Besides that, the possibility of making an appeal to the court of the higher instance with hardly realisable conditions was for the parties, except in exceptional cases, only a theoretical alternative.
The privilege of foundation to Gradec Zagrabiensis is the only document in which a part of customary law of a Slavonian town was codified in the middle of the 13th century which, in relation to lapidary provisions of other privileges, represents an act of general significance. Customary law, fixed in the privilege to Gradec could not, in the author’s view, essentially differ from customary law of other Slavonian medieval towns, primarily in those towns which were granted the status equal to the status of Gradec, and thus also from the provision on the second-degree instance on the level of the town. The author emphasises the fact that the customary law of Gradec represents a kind of commixtio of customs and tradition of ethnically heterogeneous population which, according to the indicators in the sources, apart from later, during the 14th century, incorporated elements of post-glossator law, even at the time of granting privileges, among others, contained the elements of German law. Actually, the author is of the opinion that in the concept of the commented norm of the Gradec privilege the concept of the institution of German law may be recognized, according to which the plaintiff and the defendant are marked by the term “actor”, which gives other meaning to this controversial norm.
Keywords
Gradec Zagrabiensis; court instances; maiores civitatis; antiqui iudicis; judex suspectus; causa recusationis
Hrčak ID:
5111
URI
Publication date:
20.4.2006.
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