Zbornik Radova: Pravni Fakultet u Novom Sadu (Jan 2016)
Discussions about unification of Yugoslav law in 20. century: The role of language and national spirit in nomotechnics
Abstract
To preserve the national spirit, whether in the people in one country, whether in society, or in law, is a great and very responsible job to do. In times of chaos, creating a new future for one new country, may make that assignment difficult. Having all that in mind, and putting it into a context of creation of law, we must say that preserving the national spirit, even with using the own national language, could be even more difficult. In this paper, the author reveals what were stands of some prominent Yugoslav lawyers and politicians during the first half of the 20th century ( Toma Živanović, Živojin Perić, Đorđe Tasić, Slobodan Jovanović; Lujo Bakotić, Nikolaj Pahorukov and many others), regarding the unification of Yugoslav law, and the reception of foreign laws in this legal system. During this period, the newly formed country, formed after The First World War, was facing with a lot of challenges, such as understanding and accepting of new Yugoslav national spirit, fight for forming new national law and breaking all connections that it has with some other foreign wars, fight for preserving its own, particular national spirits, etc. Debate lasted for almost three decades; also some historians, journalists and writers were involved in this debate (Vladimir Ćorović, Isidora Sekulić, and others ), but it seems that it wasn't that fruitful as one might expect it. Many of them weren't ready for compromises, and were pleading either for national purity of law, either for complete takeover of foreign law- it was considered for better law just because it was-foreign. The Austrian law had the greatest influence on particular national laws, and even on forming some parts of Yugoslav law, besides French and German laws. But, something that the author calls 'linguistic patriotism' had greater influence on forming new law, and made this theoretical debate greater , improving it even from the political, social and other points of view. In this paper, the author reveals the essence of 'linguistic patriotism', in order to begin broader debate about it in further papers.
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