Veča. Príspevok k dejinám slovanského práva
The veche. A contribution to the history of Slavonic law

Summary/Abstract: The veche has its regular place in the scientific and textbook literature. It is described as a popular assembly, which as a legal authority has traditionally wide competences in society. The origins of this type of gathering are often sought in the oldest past of the Slavs and therefore it is believed that veche accompanied the legal evolution of almost all the Slavic nations or societies. Various gatherings in medieval sources, mentioned in Latin as colloquium, placitum or under other terms were covered in literature by this Slavic term known from the Primary chronicle and therefore also with its imagined competences. This model of the process of the gathering, as was pointed out by Jacek Banaszkiewicz or Karol Modzelewski, is based on the notes of Tacitus, Thietmar and Helmold, compared with those from Novgorod and Pskov. The paper explores the powers and duties of the veche, compares the different phenomena that are brought together under this term in literature from various places in Europe and from various stages of history. The main goal of the text is to analyse whether or not the veche was a legal institution as is traditionally believed and most of all whether it was typical for communities named in medieval sources as Slavs.

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