LEGAL REGULATION OF THE INSTITUTE COMMODATUM IN THE MEDIEVAL CROATIAN STATUTORY LAW

Abstract

Public law unevenness of the territorial system in the Late Middle Ages resulted in the inability to interpret certain contractual obligatory institutes by using unique legal sources. For this reason, determining characteristics of certain legal institutes requires a very thorough analysis of those sources that are available, but often not applicable for representation of the institutes which were rarely implemented or implied establishing normal rules in everyday legal transactions. This is especially the case of the institute of commodatum, which, until the period of entry into force of the General Civil Code, was hardly subjected to formal legal regulation. This paper’s aim is, therefore, to seek to determine whether there is a general continuity in legal regulation of the institute of commodatum in the area which, due to the complex political circumstances, was subjected to different legal effects. This will be the way of filling the obvious gaps in the Croatian legal history science as regards loans, and of setting up a reliable basis for analyzing this institute in the contemporary law.