ИНСТИТУТИ РИМСКОГ ПРАВА У СРЕДЊОВЕКОВНОЈ СРБИЈИ
INSTITUTES OF ROMAN LAW IN MEDIAEVAL SERBIA

Summary/Abstract: The Roman law was adopted in Mediaeval Serbia in an indirect way, i. e. Through translation of Byzantine laws and legal miscellanies. Original Latin texts of Roman iurisconsults are not used in the process of reception but instead only the Greek translations served the purpose. Therefore Serbian translations include certain departures from the original which sometimes even change the meaning of the original Roman text. That phenomenon was a result of particularities of Greek and Roman legal terminology as well as of specific elements of Greek and Latin languages. Serbian translators have used and followed the Greek translations and not the Latin originals. Consequently, according to the author of the present contribution, the best method for studying the reception of Roman law in Mediaeval Serbia is to consider specific legal institutes and their transformation, beginning with Roman and continuing, through Byzantin (Graeco-Roman) to Serbian Mediaeval Law. The author gave three examples: 1) Ulpian’s thought that law (ius) was derived from justice (iustitia) since law is the art of good and equality (D. I, 1, 1); 2) Gaius’ distinction in the law of persons that all men are either free of slaves (Gaius, Inst. I, 9; Iust. Inst. I, 3; D. I, 5, 3); 3) Lex Falcidia, promulgated in 40 BC, providing for a maximum of three quarters of a person’s estate to be bestowed as a legacy, entitling an heir to a least a quarter of the inheritance (Gaius, Inst. II, 227).

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