Austrian Advokaten Ordnung: The legal profession act of 1852 and its application in the territory of Vojvodina

Abstract

The paper offers an overview of legal profession in the XVIII century in the territory of the Eastern part of he Habsburg Monarchy, which covered Croatia, Slavonia, and Vojvodina. In order to better appreciate the role of legal profession (lawyers), the author examines the state judicial and administrative apparatus, as well as the social circumstances, in existence at that particular period of time. Revolutionary turmoil that spread across Europe in the middle of the XIX century, engulfed the Habsburg Monarchy as well, and brought about some crucial changes in the legal profession. The Provisional Legal Profession Act was introduced in 1848/49 only to be replaced by a new Legal Profession Act of 24 July 1852 that came into force on 1 January 1853 and was introduced for the territory of Hungary, Croatia, Slavonia, Banat of Temeswar and Serbian Vojvodina, with the exception of Vojna Krajina (Military Frontier). The paper offers an indebt, section by section, analysis of this first modern law regulating legal profession as well as its territorial application. In order to grasp the complexity of historic context as it relates to the law, the author presents the court system in Croatia, Slavonia and part of Vojvodina that was in force up to 1866, that is up to 1925. At the end, the author offers his own oppinion on the general meaning of this law that was in force in Croatia and Slavonia, as well as in Srijem region of Vojvodina up the introduction of the 1929 Ordinance regulating legal profession in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The author adds a list of lawyers that practices law in Srijem in 1925 from the registry of lawyers of the Bar Association in Osijek and the Royal Court Table in Zagreb, collected from documents found at the State Archives in Osijek.